Why You Should Avoid Social Media Altogether If You Have A Medical Malpractice Claim

It may seem harmless but you should avoid social media altogether if you’re involved in a medical malpractice claim.

There have been cases when claims have been compromised because of seemingly innocuous social media posts.

How a social media post can negatively affect your medical malpractice claim

During a medical malpractice claim, you need to prove that a medical practitioner or institution was at fault for injuring you.

Naturally, the defence’s job is to try to discredit your claim.

The defence will look at your social media accounts to try to undermine the claim.

If there’s anything posted that can be used to undermine the claim, it can be submitted by the defence as evidence that your claim is false or exaggerated.

Remember, social media posts are – depending on their privacy settings – considered public record.

Deleting posts that could relate to your claim during the case can be viewed as tampering with evidence by the court.

Using social media during a medical malpractice claim

It’s better to avoid social media completely.

If you can’t, here’s what not to do on social media platforms for the duration of the case:

• don’t post any information about the case and its progress
• don’t delete any social media posts while the case is on-going, in case it appears that you’re hiding information
• don’t friend anyone you don’t know well
• don’t post about upcoming events, holidays or outings.

Examples of how social media activity can harm a personal injury claim

Social media posts can be used to prove your injuries aren’t as bad as you claim.

They can also be used to disprove emotional distress related to your injury, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

In a real case, a woman who claimed that injuries from a car accident left her unable to dance was denied her claim because her Facebook page showed pictures of her dancing that were posted after the accident.

The pictures were submitted as evidence that her claim was exaggerated.

In another example, a woman injured her back due to a faulty desk chair and claimed that the injury led to a loss of enjoyment in life.

The opposing legal team used a profile picture of her smiling and her use of smiling emojis to undermine her claim and gain access to her private social media posts.

A wrongful termination and gender discrimination case tried to use the number of happy birthday messages a woman received on Facebook as proof that she wasn’t suffering from isolation and anxiety after being fired, as she claimed.