Don’t Let Your Friends Ruin Your Legal Case

It’s 2019, social media has been a large part of people’s lives for some time now. 

At Millar’s law, we are not surprised that the majority of clients know that they should never post pictures or comments of them participating in things that do not represent a true picture of their life post-injury on their social media accounts throughout their civil litigation matter. 

What many do not realize is that even private posts have the potential to become evidence in your civil claim. Privacy controls on facebook will not protect you in all cases- and you should avoid issues all costs. 

Many think that by switching their account to ‘private’ during the case, or if they always had a private account they are in the green. However, what most people don’t know is that if the Defense can convince the Judge your social media account contains data which is relevant and material to the case, the courts will order you to provide that data. Your friends tagging you in the pictures they post of you doing the same or similar activities hurts your litigation in the same way so don’t allow your friends to sidetrack your legal case. 

We understand that posts may not be an accurate picture of your everyday life, but rather a snapshot of a good moment. For most clients, that moment of normalcy helped their mental health but cost them dearly in physical pain for days afterwards.  

It is important to remember that both the defence and the court are not privy to the time you spent in bed for weeks after the accident or events in your photos, or even that you weren’t really enjoying yourself in the pictures you posted or are tagged in. All that the other side is seeing is the highlight real of photos and can make inferences by the way you appear in the photos. 

Posts of this nature directly impact your credibility. Your credibility is of the utmost importance especially when medical experts on either side have conflicting views on whether the injuries were serious and/or permanent. In that situation, the plaintiff’s credibility is crucial and your facebook post of two years ago or the picture your buddy tagged you in may seriously undermine your credibility and lead to losing your case.  

So commit to a no-post and no-tag policy!

Contact Millars Law Today When You Can’t Afford to Lose. info@ml-dev.thirdeyeinsights.ca or (519) 657-1LAW


By: Shari Lamore

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