The Idaho Accident Book by Matthew J. Hansen - HTML preview

Mistake #5

Misrepresenting your activity level

To be successful in a personal injury claim, you need to be completely honest. This is particularly true in today’s climate, where many jurors are suspicious of personal injury plaintiffs to begin with. You should be aware that insurance companies have been known to hire private investigators to conduct videotape surveillance. If you claim that you cannot run, climb, or stoop, and you are caught doing so on videotape, you can forget about your claim. There is no explanation (other than “you got my brother, not me. See that tattoo?”) that can overcome the eye of the camera. However, with the growth of social media websites over the past decade, insurance companies rarely need to hire private investigators to conduct video surveillance anymore.

Social media gives insurance companies endless opportunities to take seemingly harmless comments, photos, or videos out of context in an attempt to minimize a claim’s value. Insurance companies, adjusters, and their attorneys are checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and blogs to get information about you, the accident victim. There may be valuable information about you on these sites that could severely damage your personal injury claim.

Why are insurance companies looking at social media sites?

• To confirm or disprove the severity of your injury
• To confirm or disprove your ability to perform activities and sports
• To confirm or disprove your ability to work
• To confirm or disprove whether you interact normally with friends and family

Pictures, videos, personal information, posts, and comments can wreck your case. You must be aware of how your pictures and comments will be viewed. Sometimes, the most innocent and seemingly irrelevant things can be twisted to make it look as if you were not injured or you were lying about being injured.

Even making the pages private may not stop the insurance company from seeing it. You may inadvertently follow or become “Facebook friends” with someone the adjuster knows. Also, if your case goes to court, the judge may order you to produce your social media pages.

Here are some tips to deal with social media:

• Don’t post anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable having the insurance adjuster read.
• Check your privacy settings and block anyone you do not know from viewing your personal pages.
• Search your name on all sites that you are a member of, as well as on Google, to see what comes up. See what photos you have been tagged in and take the appropriate action to remove photos you are not comfortable with others seeing.
• Do not accept any friend requests from people you don’t know.

Although these sites are fun and useful tools to keep in touch with friends and family, they can be used against you in many different ways. The bottom line: Use common sense and protect yourself as you use your social media websites.