Tips for Using Social Media During Litigation – Spoiler Alert: Don’t!
While social media tends to add a flare of entertainment to our lives and allows us to easily stay connected to family members, friends, coworkers, and others online — there can be some potential pitfalls with using social media if you ever find yourself in the midst of a pending litigation case. Your social media account and posts can come back to haunt you.
When it comes to using social media when you have a litigation case pending, here are some tips:
Do not delete. For starters – do not delete any past posts or your profile. Put simply, it won’t help you — but it will likely hurt you. The “delete” button may make your profile seem to disappear, but that profile is stored on a server at the hosting site. So, “deleted” isn’t really deleted. If the opposing party’s attorney subpoenas your social media accounts from the host, that deleted post or profile likely will be produced – and in full. For this reason, anything you delete has a way of making you look bad, as though you are intentionally trying to hide something. And when the other party’s attorney feels like you are trying to hide something — they only dig deeper. For this reason, keeping your social media accounts intact but unused is often the best course.
Go inactive. Our best advice is to turn off your social media accounts or stop actively using them. What you don’t post cannot hurt you. Alternately, what you do post can hurt you. Not using your social media accounts will help you to avoid saying or doing something that could potentially make you look bad later or which could negatively impact your case. These types of things are often ones you don’t realize to be problematic at the time that you post them. They may seem harmless or unrelated, but the opposing party’s attorney may use those posts to “spin” them against you.
Be cautious. If you do not want to stop using your social media accounts altogether, be extremely cognizant about what you post – and what you don’t. Do not post anything related to your pending case. Period, end of discussion. If in doubt – leave it out! Don’t post it.
Address any areas of concern. If you have concerns about one of your past posts or something on one of your social media profiles, bring those issues to your attorney’s attention immediately. Don’t be embarrassed about the content. Forewarned is forearmed. Don’t wait for the other side to discover it first. It is your attorney’s job to protect your interests and guide you through the litigation process. The more honest you are about anything that exists that could hurt you – the better your attorney can protect you from it.
If you need to hire an experienced litigation attorney to represent you threatened or pending litigation– call The Nice Law Firm at (317) 269-3500. We stand ready to help guide you through the complex process of litigation and protect your best interests.
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