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Injured in a car accident? Be careful on social media.

No matter one’s age, social media plays a large role in everyday life. Individuals scroll through feeds daily, post updates about their lives and share pictures of their activities.

This is normal nowadays. Therefore, posting on social media might seem inconsequential, but in some cases, it can be a risk – including after an individual suffers a serious injury in a car accident.

Social media can counter other evidence proving pain and suffering

If individuals pursue compensation after suffering a serious injury in a car accident, it is often necessary to prove:

  1. The other driver is more than 50% at fault for the crash causing the injury, under New Jersey’s modified comparative fault rule; and
  2. To recover compensation for pain and suffering, they must show they have suffered serious physical and mental distress because of the accident.

Individuals usually have concrete records of the lost wages and medical bills compensation will cover. However, pain and suffering are often subjective. Individuals must often provide a detailed record of the anguish and pain suffered because of the other driver’s negligence.

Posting on social media could work against that.

Insurance companies will look at your social media

Posting on social media might seem simple enough, but it could provide evidence that could hurt one’s claim for compensation.

We know that social media does not contain the truth about one’s life. Individuals often only post the most positive aspects of their life – not the negative, such as a car accident or a serious injury. Even so, insurance companies now make it a point to check an individual’s social media to find evidence to reduce compensation.

For example, insurance companies often look for:

  • Images of individuals smiling;
  • Images or posts about outings or events; or
  • Posts about happy life updates.

Then they could use such posts as evidence that an individual is not suffering as much anguish or pain as they claim. Individuals could very well still be suffering from an injury and unable to work or play, but insurance companies could still use social media posts to claim otherwise.

To play it safe, it is often best to avoid posting anything relating to the accident or one’s injuries on social media.

If you have been in an accident and have any questions about this, contact the Personal Injury attorneys at Piro Zinna Cifelli Paris & Genitempo.

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