The short answer is “yes,” if you let them.
In social media, as in pretty much everything else in life, context is important. Posts to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or other platforms offer a snapshot in time, but don’t necessary give a true representation of what the person is experiencing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The truth is, most people try to put on a happy face in social media postings rather than sharing doom and gloom with the world.
These are reasons why it’s especially important to exercise social media discipline when you’re a plaintiff in a Texas medical malpractice case. When we first meet with new clients at Painter Law Firm, we urge them to do these four things immediately:
• Change all social media settings to private.
• Don’t make any social media posts about the health care, injuries, or impairments that are the subject of the claim.
• Don’t write any posts that mention a potential defendant.
• Don’t post any photos or videos to social media that, when viewed out of context, may make you appear to be physically better off than you actually are.
If your social media settings aren’t private, then I can virtually guarantee that defense lawyers will go through every one of your social media posts to see if there’s something that they can use against you. To them, context won’t matter.
If you violate the other social media rules, you run the risk that the defendants will seek a court order to gain access to your social media accounts. Again, in this situation, context won’t matter.
