Despite the warm and fuzzy commercials you may see on TV, insurance companies are rarely on your side. If you are in an accident and make a claim with the at-fault party’s insurance company, you may get a front row seat to how uncooperative insurance companies can be when they are being asked to pay out. They use their vast resources to find ways to deny claims or severely undermine their value. With the advancement of the digital age and the fact that we put more and more of our lives online, the insurance companies have found new means of investigating claims and looking for potential weak spots to exploit.
Social media, for instance, has been used more and more by insurance companies to investigate claimants and the injury claims they are bringing. You may be skeptical of this, but it is true. What you put online after an accident can likely be found by an insurance company and used against you.
Avoiding Social Media After an Accident
We often turn to social media to seek support throughout life’s trials and tribulations. It is also used as a way of keeping our friends and loved ones updated on our lives. After an accident or another traumatic event, you may go on right away to post about your experience and how you are doing. In doing so, you may have hurt your injury claim unintentionally and drastically.
Types of Questions Insurance Companies Will Ask You
What you may consider an innocent enough social media post, an insurance company can spin as incriminating.
- Did you comment on what you were doing at the time of the accident?
- Were you eating?
- On your cell phone?
- Not paying attention?
The slightest mention that you did not have 100 percent focus on the road and an insurance company will use this to point the liability finger your way.
Types of Questions to Undermine Claims
Other statements can also be used by insurance companies to undermine your claim.
- Did you mention whether you were hurt?
- Did you say you felt okay after the accident?
- Were you reductive about any injuries you may have received?
They can use this statement to counter any claim you may make that you were injured in the accident.
Insurance Companies Going to Further Lengths
The trouble can extend to social media claims that happen further after the accident has occurred, but while your claim is still pending. Have you posted pictures or descriptions of your weekend adventures? Travels? Activities you have participated in? Well, an insurance company can point to these sort of posts and pointedly ask whether you could engage in these kinds of everyday enjoyments if you were injured and in as much pain as you claim.
Do not underestimate the lengths an insurance company will go to in order to protect its bottom line. Investigators looks into your online life and your actual life. This is a fact. Knowing what to post and what not to post can be difficult and sensitive territory. This is why it is often best to avoid social media after an accident, at least until your claim is resolved. If this isn’t something you are willing to do, at least limit your use. Strengthen your privacy settings as much as possible. Do not accept friend requests from anyone you do not know.
Contact a Personal Injury Attorney
At BoyesLegal, APC, we know the insurance company tricks and we know how to effectively fight them. We work for the injured. Contact us today.