My friend recently went to trial on a personal injury case. He did hours of preparation. He was ready to go. During the trial, his client testifies about how her life has been affected and how she can’t do all these activities she used to do because of her injuries. On cross-examination, defense counsel pulls out multiple social media posts she made that completely contradict her testimony. The posts sure make it look like the injuries have not slowed her down like she testified. The jury returned a defense verdict. This result is crushing for a client and most attorneys take these losses hard as well.
How does something like this happen? Prior to her testimony, my friend had asked the client if any social media “stuff” was out there and was led to believe there was nothing. The defense will look for your social media. They will use it against you in trial. You may think the information you are posting is not bad or won’t hurt you in a trial. That’s not the case. The defense can put many spins on what you post. You may have taken one vacation since you were injured but, if the defense can get to it, they will. They will get up in front of the jury and say how great your life is as they project the images on a big screen. This vacation may have been the only bright spot you had in a long, hard recovery. The way to take some of the bite out these defense tactics is making sure that everything is turned over to the defense that they are entitled to. This way there are no surprises. You get to control the flow of information. It’s also important to make sure you have privacy settings on your social media. Bottom line is that it’s best to stay off social media when you have litigation pending.