The California car accident lawyers at Bisnar | Chase have represented hundreds of car accident victims and personal injury victims over the last three decades. Whatever the monetary value of a case, we take each one of them to heart. Every client who walks into our office is invaluable to us. We strongly encourage all our clients to maintain close contact and communication with us. In fact, in most cases, communication can make or break personal injury cases. My good friend and Seattle personal injury attorney Chris Davis wrote an article recently about how one of his clients lost thousands of dollars in his case because of information he posted on his Facebook page.

According to Davis, the client sustained significant neck and back injuries in a rear-end car accident three years ago. Davis' personal injury law firm sued the driver who caused the car accident. Now, the other driver's insurance company stumbled on to the client's Facebook and Myspace pages, which had photos of him snowboarding and even a video that showed him doing high speed snowboard jumps. The result? The insurance adjuster reduced her evaluation of the case by at least $20,000.

How Is Your Personal Injury Claim Perceived?

As Davis says, this case wouldn't stand a chance because jury trials entirely depend on, well, the jurors' perception. If you were a member of a jury in this case, would you believe the guy if he stood before you and talked about his injuries, the time he has missed from work and all the other damages he suffered as a result of the accident, if you had these images of him snowboarding before you? Apparently the pictures and videos were taken a few years after the accident. But to a jury, that wouldn't matter. They will walk away from that courtroom believing that he could not have been all that hurt if he could snowboard at that speed.

In this information age, it is not at all hard for people to dig up any material they could use to hurt you. If they want to hurt your personal injury case or undermine your credibility, insurance companies or defense lawyers can very easily do so. Defense attorneys and insurance companies will throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. My advice to personal injury victims would be to steer clear of these social networking sites or posting on other sites at least until your case gets resolved.

Communicate With Your Personal Injury Lawyer

If you must participate, please always be aware of what information, pictures or videos you post there and think about how it can be used against you in your case. If you have any questions, communicate with your attorney, ask questions and find out if what you are about to post can hurt your case. Also remember that the other side can learn what your friends or family members are saying and posting about you as well. This could be an issue especially if they are called to testify in your case.