Facebook, Twitter and Your Claim

Why is Anthony Weiner on this post? Anthony was merely famous a few weeks ago, but he is infamous now - for a Tweet. He was famous for being smart - now he infamous for doing something dumb- sending a picture to someone using Twitter, and thinking that picture would remain private.
Social media is all around us, and many use it to post personal thoughts and observations, as casually as if they were having a cup of coffee with their closest friends.The problem with that casual use is that comments, pictures, videos or anything else on a Facebook page, a Twitter feed or any other electronic site, (like this blog) can be "discovered" (just like medical records) in litigation and used by your opponent. So an injured worker who innocently posts on her Facebook page that she just got back from shopping "all day" with her girlfriends will find that information used against her in her compensation claim- her employer will argue that she is not disabled if she was able to go shopping for four hours. She may try to explain in her testimony that she actually wasn't even picked up for the shopping  trip until 10:30 am, that she then rode in a car for thirty minutes, spent an hour and a half for lunch, and was actually sitting down in shoe stores for much of the afternoon, and was home by 4:30 - the damage will be done by "shopping all day". Likewise, a series of posts about how she hated her job will be used to argue that she has a personal motivation to be out of work that has nothing to do with an injury, and will call into question her credibility when she says she can't work.
Remember, the posts don't go away, and you cannot afford to be careless with what you say. I heard one "expert" say that you should never post anything you wouldn't want your mother or an employer to read. I think that is sound advice.
You don't want to be in the position of Anthony Weiner - regretting that Tweet or Facebook post.
You can learn more about Tom Sennett here.