When you’ve been in a car accident, it’s natural to want to share your experience with your family and friends. You’re probably shaken up. You’ve been through something traumatic and stressful. While it’s tempting to want to whip out your phone and tell the world, talking about your car accident on social media can compromise your legal case.
What you say online can come into court at a hearing or at a trial. It’s just as if you said it to someone else in person. In Tennessee, if you’re on one side of a lawsuit, the other side can tell the judge or the jury things that you said outside of court. This is true even if it’s something you wrote like a social media posting.
The legal term for what you say outside of court is called an admission by a party opponent. What that basically means is that anything you say or write is fair game. If you post it, there’s nothing you can do to stop the other side from telling the judge and the jury about it.
That’s even true if it’s only your opinion. You don’t even have to be stating a fact. As long as you said it, the other side can use it against you. You can read about Tennessee’s admission by a party opponent rule on the Tennessee courts website.
It’s easy to be misunderstood on social media. You can make a statement and two people can interpret what you said very differently. One person might think that you’re angry and another person might think that you’re elated. It’s hard for readers to tell what you’re actually feeling when you write on social media.
You can bet that when you talk about your accident online, the other side’s attorney is going to try to twist what you say. They can put any kind of emotions in your words that they want to add. That means that what you say can be taken out of context and used against you.
There’s no way to stop the other side’s attorney from trying to put words in your mouth except to use no words at all. You’re better off not posting about your accident. That way you don’t have to worry about a lawyer trying to read things into your post to try and make their case.
Attorneys use social media just like everyone else. They know that it’s a great place to look when they’re working on a case. You can bet the other side is going to check your posts, and your attorney is going to look for social media postings from everyone else involved in the case. If you post about it, chances are the other side is going to find it.
When you’re in a car accident, you might need to go to court. It’s important that you don’t do anything that can damage your case. Talking about your case online can’t help, but it can hurt a lot. Your best bet is to find other ways to get the support that you need after a car accident. In addition to family and friends, you can speak with a professional counselor if you need professional support. A car accident is a big deal. Skip the social media and you might save yourself from even more heartache.
