Thursday, March 4, 2010

Facebook & Personal Injury Law

In a motor vehicle accident case, the Plaintiff sued her insurance company as she claimed that she was unable to do heavy housework, tend to her garden, snowmobile, go horseback riding and play tennis, golf or "winter sports" as she used to. Her insurer, Royal & Sun Alliance, brought a motion without notice to the Plaintiff for an Order that she preserve the contents and photos on her Facebook page, and then hand them over to the insurance company, including the parts of her page was set to "private" that could only be viewed by her 67 approved friends.

Mr. Justice David Price denied the insurer's request, ruling that Royal & Sun had failed to prove the page included relevant material, such as photos showing the Plaintiff engaged in physical activities. The Judge also chided the insurer for coming to Court without having first even asked the Plaintiff to produce these documents. Although the Plaintiff was not Ordered to produce the contents of her Facebook page, the Judge did permit the insurer to examine the Plaintiff and ask her questions about her facebook account which may, if relevant, lead to her having to disclose contents of her Facebook account.

Todd K. Plant, Personal Injury Lawyer at Plant Quinn Thiele LLP, has the experience and knowledge regarding personal injury, motor vehicle accidents, disclosure and how social networking sites such as Facebook can impact your case. If you are claiming to be injured and unable to perform physical activities, then there logically should not exist any photos of you doing so and hence they would not be posted on Facebook thereafter.

To consult with Todd K. Plant about your personal injury \ motor vehicle case, contact him at 613-563-1131.