Even if you think you have nothing to hide, the unfortunate reality is that words, images, and even location check-ins that seem totally innocent—or even completely irrelevant—could be twisted and used against you by an insurance company acting in bad faith.

Here are a few of the most common tactics.

1. Your Comments About the Crash Might Be Interpreted as an Admission of Fault 

People say all sorts of things in the stressful moments after a crash, and they have a natural tendency to want to apologize—or give others the benefit of doubt—even when it wasn’t their fault. Unfortunately, these statements can hurt your case, especially when social media preserves them for the defense to review and use against you. 

Even brief comments that seem innocent, like “I never saw them coming” or “I couldn’t stop” give the other side something to work with as they try to argue that you played a role—even a minor one—in causing your own injuries.

In North Carolina, an admission of fault is especially costly. That’s because the state is one of just four in the U.S. that follows the doctrine of contributory negligence, which means that anyone who is even slightly at fault for an accident is barred from making any financial recovery. Even if a jury determines you were just 5% or even 1% responsible, you will still walk away with nothing.

RELATED POST: Why Contributory Negligence Matters for Your North Carolina Personal Injury Claim

2. Talking About Your Case Could Destroy Your Confidentiality 

When you talk with your lawyer about your case in private, you have complete confidentiality. Attorney-client privilege prohibits the lawyer from disclosing the details of your conversation (or other correspondence, such as letters or emails) to anyone else, or from anyone finding out what you talked about with your lawyer.

However, the details of your case only remain confidential if you’ve shared them with your lawyer and no one else. If you share information about your car accident and subsequent recovery on social media, that information becomes public and can be used against you. This includes information about things like: 

• The circumstances of the crash 
• Your physical health 
• Medical conditions
• Your mental health
• Your emotional state 

Any confidentiality protections that would have prevented the insurance company or their defense attorney from knowing about this information go out the window. 

3. The Defense Might Use Your Activities to Claim You’re Not Really Hurt 

Recovery from a car accident can be a long and difficult process, and every victim deserves bright moments in that journey. No one should expect you to be miserable all the time; attending a party with friends or having a night out at a sporting event might be the type of activity that lifts your spirits and motivates you to push forward in your recovery.

From the perspective of the insurance company and their lawyers, however, any moment of celebration or joy that you document on social media is ammunition they can use to claim you’re exaggerating your pain and suffering. 

It doesn’t matter that your photo or status update doesn’t tell the full story. Maybe you were fighting through pain the entire time and barely managed to get out of the house. But even if there is an entirely innocent explanation, the insurer knows that these kinds of pictures can still have a large emotional impact on jury and put doubt in their minds. They won’t hesitate to pounce on anything they find in your social media feed and play it up as much as possible.

4. Even Being Too Active Online Might Hurt Your Case 

So, you didn’t make any comments about the accident. You didn’t post any pictures of yourself at a birthday party or cookout having a beer with friends. That means you’re in the clear, right? 

Maybe not. The insurance company could still try to use your overall activity level on social media as evidence that you’re exaggerating your injuries. If you’re posting, liking, commenting, or “checking in” constantly and you seem a little too upbeat or “normal” in your activities, the defense may try to argue that you haven’t experienced as much physical and emotional pain as you say. 

This may seem completely ridiculous to the average person—should an injured and recovering victim not use their phone or computer and keep up with friends and family on social media? Still, it’s something you need to be ready for, because the defense will grasp at anything they can find to try and undermine your case. 

5. Someone Else’s Posts Can Be Used Against You, Too

Even if you follow all the above advice to the letter, there’s one more important thing to remember—while you can control what you post, you can’t always control what others post about you. If those social media posts are visible to others, the insurance company’s investigation may find them.

It’s natural for parents, close family members, and other loved ones to want to show their love and support (or vent their frustrations) over social media. So you may need to have a very frank, honest discussion with them about why they shouldn’t do so, and how important it is. As bad as you would feel if one of your own posts wrecked your case, imagine how bad a loved one feel if the posted photos used against you by the defense were theirs.

Avoid discussing your car accident with anyone who does not need to know the details—in other words, your attorney and your medical team. If you are planning to spend time with others, ask them to refrain from posting about you, posting photos of you, tagging you in images, etc.

Finally, don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know, or don’t know well. Ask your friends and loved ones to do the same. Unfortunately, this is a common (and easy) way that an investigator can gain access to supposedly “private” posts.