Nobody thinks about their injury claim when they put up a photo. You are just living your life, and your life happens to be on your phone.
But while a claim is open, your social media is fair game. Not in a dramatic, someone-is-parked-outside-your-house way. In a much more ordinary way: someone types your name into a search bar, scrolls, and screenshots.
What actually gets looked at
More than people expect, and it is rarely the thing you would worry about:
- Photos and videos, including ones a friend posted of you
- Captions and comments, including jokes
- Check-ins and location tags
- Timestamps, which is how an old photo becomes a current problem
- Fitness and activity apps that post publicly by default
None of this requires anything unusual. Most of it is just public.
The gym photo problem
Here is the situation that comes up over and over.
You hurt your back in a crash. Two months into treatment, you have a decent day. You go to the gym, you do a light, modified version of your normal workout, carefully, and afterward you are sore for three days. Somewhere in there, someone takes a picture.
The photo shows you at the gym. It does not show that you modified the workout, that you were cleared by your provider, that it was your first decent day in weeks, or that you paid for it afterward.
Context does not travel with a picture. The image goes in the file. The explanation does not.
You may well have an answer for it. The trouble is that you are now spending your energy explaining a photograph instead of talking about your injury.
The tags you do not control
This is the part people miss. It is not only what you post. A friend tags you at a birthday dinner, a group photo goes up from a weekend trip, someone comments “good to see you back out there.”
You did not post any of that, and it can still end up in the conversation about your claim. Turning on tag review costs you nothing and takes about thirty seconds.
Do not delete anything
This one matters more than everything above, and people’s instincts are exactly backwards on it.
If you have a claim and you go clean up your accounts, you are not solving the problem. Deleting posts once a claim exists can be treated as destroying evidence, and courts take that seriously. Depending on the facts, that can be worse for you than whatever the post actually showed.
An awkward photo is a fact you can explain. A deleted photo is a story about you.
So: stop posting about it, do not delete what is already there, and talk to your attorney about anything that worries you. That order.
Privacy settings are not a shield
Going private is smart, and it is not a force field. Private accounts have followers, followers screenshot things, and material that is relevant to a claim can be requested through the discovery process regardless of your settings.
Treat every post as though it could be read out loud by someone who is not on your side. Because it might be.
What to actually do
- Stop posting about the accident. No updates, no vents, no jokes about the other driver.
- Do not discuss your injuries or your treatment online, including in DMs and group chats.
- Turn on tag review so you see things before they attach to you.
- Tell close friends and family not to post about you or tag you for now.
- Do not delete anything that is already up.
- Do not accept new follow requests from people you do not actually know.
The short version
You are allowed to have a life while your case is open. Go to the birthday dinner. Just do not narrate it, do not let it get tagged, and do not go back and scrub the last six months because a post makes you nervous. If something is worrying you, that is a question for your lawyer, not a reason to hit delete.
