How Social Media Can Ruin Your Motorcycle Injury Case (And What to Avoid Posting)

After a motorcycle accident, you may want your friends and family to know you’re okay. People often post pictures of their accident, their hospital stay, and other details on their social media pages, since that’s how we communicate these days.

There’s nothing wrong with letting your friends know you had a bad accident but you’re recovering. However, posting the wrong thing after a bad accident can seriously damage your motorcycle injury case. Social media isn’t as private as people like to think, and you can destroy your claim if you aren’t careful.

Private Doesn’t Mean Invisible

All social media accounts let users restrict who can see and post on their pages. Smart social media users keep their privacy settings as high as possible to prevent random users from seeing their personal information.

“Private” doesn’t mean your page is invisible. Some accounts let your friends share your information with their friends, so public users can see your pictures and information on their pages. If you link to community pages or group chats, that data is visible to others as well.

Why It Matters

After an accident, insurance companies look for reasons to deny or delay your claim. If your case is contested or goes to trial, insurance agents will scrutinize your claim carefully, looking for anything that might show you’re not as injured as you say you are.

For instance, you may think telling your motorcycle crew that you’ll be back on the road in no time is just bragging, but to an insurance company agent, it could sound like you’re really just fine and you ought to be out of rehab and back to work. Those pictures of you on your bike might be years old, but the attorney can use them at trial to show a jury you were just faking your injuries.

How to Protect Yourself

The best way to keep insurers from seeing your social media posts is to avoid talking about your motorcycle accident entirely. If you want to let friends know about your case, emails or texts are not visible to the public eye. Never post dramatic photos of your wrecked motorcycle or yourself bruised and battered in the hospital.

If your case does go to trial, never mention anything about the case on social media. Your attorney will give you strict instructions on this matter. Other things to keep off your social media include:

• Details about the accident: what led to it, what you were doing during it, how fast you were going, etc.

• Your opinion of the other driver(s) in the accident.

• Speculation of how much your case might be worth, even in jest.

• 
  

  Threats or promises about what will happen if you lose your case.

California courts follow a “pure comparative negligence” rule, so you can recover damages even if you are partially at fault in your accident. However, your attorney will have trouble making your case if you have a social media post announcing, “Check out this wreck I had after that huge party last weekend!” Keep your comments about the accident discreet and impersonal.

After an accident, the motorcycle accident attorneys at the Brand Law Group can help you get the compensation you deserve. Contact us today to discuss your case.