Tweeting Your Trauma
Serge Semirog
In this day and age of social media, we share everything about ourselves - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are a fairly mundane experience to most people. We post and tweet every single day!
However your status update about driving down the highway may come back to haunt you should your insurance claim go to court. The opposing attorney can use your social media postings against you. He or she can show that you are active on social media behind the wheel (which means that you are texting and driving, an illegal activity by the way) or reduce your credibility if the one-hundred and forty characters paint you in a bad light.
As a result, North Carolina attorneys have asked if they may advise their clients to remove existing postings. And, in response, the NC Bar has replied with a resounding "NO" if the postings refer to the existing lawsuit or accident.
Relevant social media postings must be preserved.
Social media are considered evidence in a court of law and therefore removing the postings would be considered "spoliation of evidence" or "obstruction of justice" - a violation of the law.
What we can tell you is to set your security and privacy settings on social media pages to the highest level of restricted access. This makes sure that strangers are unable to see your day-to-day activity, and lawyers must rely on a court order to obtain any relevant social media postings.