Facebook May Be Used to Deny Your Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Claim

Unfortunately, some workers’ compensation insurance companies will go to great lengths to come up with a reason to deny an otherwise legitimate Minnesota workers’ compensation claim. Other insurance companies thoroughly investigate each and every claim to root out fraud. In both cases, workers’ compensation insurers routinely use internet searches to see if there is relevant information on the internet regarding you or your claim. 

Social media sites, especially Facebook, are getting some workers’ compensation claimants into trouble. Obviously, if a worker claims to have a back injury and that they can’t work, but has posted pictures of themselves skydiving after the alleged injury, that type of fraudulent claim should be denied.

Unfortunately, however, some workers’ compensation insurers are trying to use even seemingly innocent posts and pictures as a basis to deny an injured workers’ claim, or to dispute the extent of that worker’s injury. For example, if you have cherry, happy status updates, or post that you’re “doing well,” some workers’ compensation insurers are arguing that those types of posts are evidence that you’re not hurt as badly as you claim, or that you’re not hurt at all.

Adjusters are also using seemingly innocent pictures for the same purpose. For example, if an injured worker has a knee injury that prevents them from working, a photo of that worker sitting around a campfire having a beer with friends might be used to argue that you’re not hurt as badly as you claim.

The discoverability of Facebook content, or whether or not you’re required to turn over your Facebook content to the insurance company, is a relatively new area of the law. Generally speaking, courts in a number of jurisdictions have held that your Facebook content is discoverable in the context of a workers’ compensation case, meaning that you may be legally required to turn over the content of your Facebook account to the workers’ compensation insurer.

Within the last two years or so, I’ve now run into a number of Minnesota workers’ comp. cases where the insurer has demanded disclosure of all social networking sites my client belongs to. Thus far, I have yet to encounter a case where the insurer is demanding direct access to those social networking accounts, but I’m sure it’s simply a matter of time before we’re seeing that type of request on a regular basis.

Is this fair? Definitely not. I have a personal Facebook account, and I definitely don’t want everyone to see everything. The best way to protect yourself is to regularly check that you have your privacy settings set to the highest level, use common sense about what you post, and regularly monitor what other people are posting about you. You should assume that anything shared on a social media site is not private, and could be used against you. If you have something you’d like to keep private, keep it off the internet. 

Visit us at MeuserLaw.com to learn more about your Minnesota workers’ compensation rights, call us at 877-746-5680, or click here to send us an email.

Work Comp. and Personal Injury Claimants: Be Smart About What You Post on Facebook

I ran across an interesting story by a Pennsylvania personal injury attorney who warns that insurance companies are now apparently “friending” claimants on Facebook. He notes that his client received a friend request from her Progressive claims adjuster on Facebook. The client smartly declined the friend request.

I have yet to hear about this happening with any of my clients, but I don’t doubt that it will start to happen at some point. People often forget that Facebook and other social media sites are not necessarily private, regardless of your privacy settings.

Everyone uses Facebook, right? Meuser & Associate even has a Facebook page. The problem is that things you post on your Facebook page aren’t necessarily private. A single Google search will often bring up your personal Facebook page. If you have your page set to the highest privacy status, searchers can still usually see at least limited information about your profile. Another problem is that if your Facebook friends don’t have the highest privacy status, a searcher may be able to see things you’ve posted through your friends’ pages.

I’ve started to counsel my workers’ compensation and personal injury clients to use common sense about what they post on Facebook. For example:

• Select the highest privacy settings on your Facebook page.
• Don’t approve friend requests of people you don’t know.
• If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see the picture, don’t post it.
• You are alerted when friends “tag” you in a photograph. Be smart about which photos you permit to be “tagged” with your name.
• Assume all comments you make on other Facebook pages are open to public viewing and can be attributed to you.

If you have a workers’ compensation injury or a personal injury case, assume that the workers’ compensation insurance adjuster or personal injury adjuster is searching for you on the internet. If you post a photograph of yourself playing softball when you’re supposedly completely disabled, or post pictures of yourself partying it up at a bar when you are off work due to an injury, and the insurance company gets their hands on it, I assure you it won’t help your case.

For a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our Minnesota workers’ compensation and personal injury attorneys, call us at 877-746-5680, or click here to send us an email.

Meuser & Associate is on Facebook!

Meuser & Associate is now on Facebook! Come visit us and Like us!




You can also visit us at MeuserLaw.com!