If you are involved in a claim for long-term disability benefits, personal injury, or worker’s compensation, or even thinking about filing for such a claim, you should be very careful about what you, your friends, and your family post about you on social media. This is especially important in any case involving an insurance company, such as a worker’s compensation case, a personal injury case, or a worker’s compensation case.

Long-term disability insurance companies and claim administrators now make searching a claimant’s social media profiles a standard part of their claim investigations. If the insurance company finds a picture of you visiting a friend, smiling, or doing anything other than laying in bed, it will try to use it against you!

You should be very careful about what you post, and even if your profile is private, always assume what you post will come out in litigation. In court cases, insurance companies can seek private social media posts in discovery. Even if those posts seem harmless to you, the insurance company may find a way to use it against you. State and federal courts across Louisiana and the nation are still grappling with the appropriate scope of social media discovery, but the safest route is to assume anything you post could come out.

Recently, some members of Congress have pushed for the increased use of social media searches in evaluating Social Security Disability claims. Currently, Social Security does not “officially” rely on social media profiles in making determinations, but this could change if some in Congress have their way. Also, there is nothing preventing low-level analysts from “unofficially” using social media to evaluate claims. As always, it is better to be safe than sorry.