Personal Injury Law

Social Networking and Personal Injury Litigation

By LaBovick Law

The skyrocketing popularity of social networking websites such as Facebook has made  an impact on the world of personal injury litigation. While such websites include features that allow users to make their information "private," it is often anything but. The fact of the matter is that in signing up for such websites, people consent to the possibility of their information being shared with the world at large. No private profile, after all, is truly private - those who are on a user's friends list can disseminate the information that they can access to anyone at any time. The implications of this concept on the world of law has already been compelling.

Romano versus Steelcase: A Pivotal Case in the Worlds of Social Networking and the Law

There is no question that people typically, highlight their assets public social networking profiles. After all, who wants to be firends with someone that is not fun and interesting.  However, if a personal injury victim, that has sustained injuries in an accident, it stands to reason that their social networking profiles should reflect the impact of those injuries. In the case of Romano versus Steelcase, however, an online profile belied the defendant's well-being.

According to motions that were filed in the Suffolk County, New York case, Kathleen Romano's MySpace and Facebook profiles included pictures that showed the plaintiff - who had supposedly sustained neck and back injuries due to a fall from her office chair at Steelcase - smiling happily outside and doing other things that should have been impossible due to her injuries. The defendant, her employer, subpoenaed Facebook and MySpace for full access to her profiles, included deleted content. Facebook refused, citing the Stored Communications Act. Romano refused to consent, and the matter went before the court.

Ultimately, the courts ruled in favor of Steelcase and granted it access to Romano's online profiles. Part of the reason for that decision lied in the fact that several of the public portions of Romano's profiles showed evidence that contradicted with her supposedly bed-bound state.

The Impact on Personal Injury Cases

Romano versus Steelcase wasn't the first time that the courts became involved in social networking issues. In British Columbia's Bishop v. Minichiello, the plaintiff's late-night use of Facebook was deemed to be admissible as evidence in his personal injury case. Another important Canadian case, Murphy v. Prefer, highlighted the deceptive concept of "privacy" in regards to online social networking profiles. Online profiles have already made appearances in many criminal cases, too; in People v. Licenga, pictures of the defendant posing with the murder weapon on MySpace were used as evidence and upheld by an appellate court.

As more and more of these cases appear in courtrooms, everyday people are sure to become more discerning about what they post on their social networking profiles. The ability to use the information on social networking sites hasn't been fully tested yet, but it's definitely going to happen more and more as time goes by.

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on December 22, 2010 (boomark / email).