Social Media

In this technological age in which a person’s most triumphant and embarrassing moments can be filmed instantly by anyone with a cell phone and then broadcast over the Internet within minutes for anyone to view, it has become increasingly difficult to keep one’s private life private.

Facebook, the premier social media site, is used by millions who post their everyday thoughts, photos and intimate moments for their friends to see. Although a person’s Facebook page is only fully visible to invited guests, it is not a truly private venue, nor is it a space immune from the reach of personal injury litigation.

In the past few years, courts have become increasingly willing to grant defense lawyers in personal injury cases access to a plaintiff’s Facebook page or access to other their other social media sites. Defense attorneys then take advantage of any instance in which these sites expose a plaintiff as behaving less than honestly in regard to how particular injuries occurred or have ultimately affected his or her life.