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What every personal injury client should about Facebook and Myspace

Over the last 25 years the internet has grown from a secret defense department program to a window on the world accessible to all.  With that has come the rise of “social media.”  Facebook is only a recent phenomena staring in 2004 and has grown to over 400 million users worldwide.  That is more than the population of the United States.  So what does the internet, Facebook, or Myspace have to do with my case?  

As you may know, any attorney with any type of case generally instructs their client to not discuss their case with anyone.  There are good reasons attorneys do this.  Whether you are in a personal injury case, or are prosecuting a criminal, or representing a criminal, or any other type of legal case, the reason you are instructed not to discuss your case is so that your attorney can protect your legal rights. 

As with the Miranda warning in a criminal case you may have heard recited in the movies, or on TV, in person: “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”  Well the same holds true in any civil case expect its not the State and a prosecutor who will be using the information gained but simply the other party in a civil case will use anything they can that will help them defeat your case.  This is true in a personal injury case.  

People like to talk about themselves and post up statements about the accident they were in, the injuries they received, photos of their car, discussions on what they did on any particular day.   You may find yourself explaining what you mean to a defense attorney someday if you are in a deposition.   

In Michigan, because of the No-Fault Law threshold a plaintiff must show a serious impairment of important body function to the extent that his or her “normal” life is impaired.  In this context, even the most innocent statement of a plaintiff did one year after the accident such as “having a great day” can come back to haunt someone in their injury case.  For instance stating, “having a great day on August 5, 2009,” may conflict with what you told a doctor if you had a doctor’s appointment that day and don’t think a defense attorney or insurance company won’t exploit this contradiction to discredit your honesty and argue that” having a great day” means your “normal” life is not impaired.   

People post these things on Myspace and Facebook all the time and many of them do not use the privacy settings to lock out the general public from viewing this information.  If you don’t think an insurance company or a private investigator hired by an insurance company is not looking to see if they can access your Facebook page or Myspace page, guess again.   

Its not enough just to have your privacy settings and only your “friends” having access. Even if you discuss your case with your “friends” on Facebook or Myspace you still have given away information and unnecessarily have brought them into your case now as a witness.  If you are ever asked in a deposition the question “who did you discuss your accident with?”  You are under oath to then include that you discussed it with that person as well.   If you tell others what your attorney advised you then you may also end up waiving attorney client privilege on the issue as well.   What this comes down to is the same old message: Don’t discuss your case with anyone! That also means you don’t post anything about your case on the internet.