A recent case concerning the rights of employers to include social media communications in litigation adds further emphasis to something we have been blogging about and telling our clients since August 2009: insurance companies were fast adapters and learned quickly that social media communications were a great way to gather information for denying claims.
Anything you post on Facebook or in a blog, tweet or text, can be used as evidence. Late this summer, a federal court in Oregon aligned itself with a decision in an earlier case where the court allowed discovery of social media communications. This includes emails, blog entries, photographs, videos, forum posts and more.
If you are considering filing a disability claim, or if you are on claim and are receiving benefits, the worst thing you can do is have an active online life. Privacy settings are relatively easy to work around and, just like video surveillance; the information is valuable enough to insurance companies that they don’t mind paying an investigator to dig a little deeper and get the information they want.
Our advice continues to be simple: keep your life off-line. If you have been active online and are concerned about how this may impact your claim, call our office today to find out how we can help.
