Social Media Use And Your Workers' Compensation Claim
Posted on: 24 October 2018
If you ever suffer an injury at work and have to file a workers' compensation claim, there are many things that you should know and consider in the process. While you may know that you have to report the incident right away, and that the paperwork for the claim needs to be turned in sooner rather than later, you may not know how certain things can affect your workers' compensation claim. Social media use, for example, can have a significant impact on how your workers' compensation claim goes. Get to know more about social media use and your workers' compensation claim so you can avoid making major mistakes, and can work with your workers' compensation lawyer to successfully complete your case.
Your Social Media Posts After the Injury Can Be Monitored
One of the things that you should always be aware of is that people can always be watching you and keeping track of what you are saying and doing. When you have been injured at work and you believe that it is severe enough to file a workers' compensation claim, you had better believe that your social media will at least be checked as the claim is processed.
You do not want to post anything after your accident and injury that would dispute anything you said in your claim or demonstrate that you are not as affected by your injury as you claim to be. For example, if you post pictures of yourself at a party a few days after the incident, your employer, and the workers' compensation insurance company, might use this to demonstrate that you are able to do normal activities and therefore are not badly injured.
Your Old Social Media Posts Can Be Used as Evidence as Well
Not only can your new social media posts be used as evidence in your workers' compensation case, but your older posts may be used as evidence as well. For example, if your workers' compensation claim involves a back injury on the job and you posted a month or two ago about having a sore back, your employer could make the argument that you didn't really injure your back on the job, but had a prior injury.
Your attitude toward your employer may also be assessed in your social media posts. If you are perpetually negative about your work and employer, their legal team could try to make the argument that you had a vendetta against the company rather than a legitimate injury.
Bottom Line: Watch What You Say on Social Media
The bottom line when it comes to your social media use, at least as it relates to a workers' compensation claim, is to watch what you say on social media. You do not want to complain a great deal about your job or your employer, for example.
And after you experience an injury at work, you want to be careful of what you are saying and doing on social media. This does not mean that you should lie or try to cover up the truth as far as your injury goes. It only means you need to be careful not to accidentally make yourself seem perfectly healthy and fine when you have a legitimate injury that you are dealing with.
Now that you know some of the facts about your social media use and a potential workers' compensation claim, you can better handle the situation if it happens to you. Don't forget if you are injured at work to contact a personal injury attorney for support and assistance in processing your claim.
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