You have seen the Facebook* posts: pictures from a beach vacation; a weekend handyman proud of the garage door he installed; a bushel of crabs about to be steamed after a long day of crabbing; Billy’s graduation party where his mom is so overjoyed, she just has to get down and boogie; or the deck still wet from being power washed.
Posting on social media is fun. Being cross-examined on the witness stand about your Facebook posts is not.
In the past year several of my clients’ cases have been destroyed by Facebook postings. The judge or jury does not want to hear the attempt at a rebuttal: “I was in tremendous pain for days after I power washed my deck”. Two suggestions: (1) Power washing the deck can wait; (2) If it cannot wait, DO NOT post about it on Facebook.
DO NOT post about your accident on Facebook. DO NOT post about your injuries on Facebook. DO NOT post about your medical treatment on Facebook. Even better: DO NOT Facebook … PERIOD!
*This includes not only Facebook but Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Flickr, and for those living in the Dark Ages, MySpace.