Ottawa Accident Lawyers – Facebook and Your Personal Injury Claim –

Can Facebook hurt you?

 

If you are involved in an accident and are injured, you will likely be involved with an insurance company at some stage. As injury lawyers, we handle every aspect of our client’s accident and injury case and we deal with all the insurance companies, adjusters and defence lawyers involved. You worry about getting better; we worry about the legal issues.

 

As part of the usual process, insurance companies will make inquiries about you and your injuries and how they affect your lifestyle. When involved in litigation or even if you are simply advancing a claim for compensation at the early stage and there is no litigation, certain aspects of your life will be investigated. Many times, insurance companies look for anything they can to reduce or illuminate compensation to injured victims.

 

As your accident and injury lawyers, we always warn our clients that social media must be used wisely. Social media like Facebook and Twitter can contain and include information and documents which you may have to produce if your case goes to Court.  In many cases, in advance of examination for discovery or trial, defence lawyers research plaintiffs (injured person) using the Internet. They can obtain many facts about an injured person and often can obtain photos or documents relating to an injured person. This sometimes happens without your lawyer even knowing.

 

The Court can in many cases order injured persons to produce a copy of their entire Facebook or Twitter account to the insurance company, adjusters and their lawyers. What are they looking for? They are looking for any evidence which contradicts that a person is injured and/or unable to do certain things.  They look for trips, photographs, activities and even comments made about activities and your life.

 

Nothing you put on the Internet is confidential.  Your Facebook page is open to your friends and they all have access to your information and can download anything you have on your Facebook account pages. You can be tagged in photos and anyone with access (even “friends”) can post them on your account or others’ accounts.  Always assume that everything you place on the Internet through any means can be accessed and is not confidential.

 

Anything and everything you place on the Internet such as photos, tweets, entries, emails and blogs can be searched by insurance companies and their lawyers and can be used against you.

 

Ottawa Facebook Injury lawyers – Ottawa Personal Injury Lawyers. Quinn Thiele Mineault Grodzki LLP – 613-315-4878 or 613-563-1131