Social media is an ever-present aspect of everyday life. Facebook alone has 936 million regular users. Many of us can’t go a day without checking our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Most of our social media activity is just harmless fun – but could this distracting habit pose a threat to a genuine personal injury claim?

Such claims are increasingly coming under intense scrutiny, including the engagement of social media investigators to examine their validity. These people are employed to view your social media accounts and find anything that could be incriminating and discredit your case.

Their inquiries can sometimes root out fraudsters who seek to rip-off insurance companies with bogus claims.

In 2014, for example, David Hammond was sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence, 200 hours unpaid work and three months on an electronically tagged curfew between 8pm and 7am, for making a false insurance claim for his fiancée’s engagement ring. Mr Hammond reported the ring stolen while on holiday in Brazil, before returning home to make a claim on his insurance. After some digging on Facebook, a picture of the fiancée wearing the missing ring was found.

Similar tactics are being used by insurance firms defending personal injury claims. But here the evidence unearthed can fall into a complex grey area.

One woman’s Facebook photos took centre stage during her claim for compensation for psychiatric injuries following two car accidents. Sarah Tambosso’s claim was thrown out by Canada’s British Columbia Supreme Court because of doubts raised about the woman’s credibility. Facebook photos showed her taking part in various social activities which the judge said were completely inconsistent with someone suffering from psychological trauma.

Claimants should be aware that the way they portray their life on social media may be taken at face value by those representing insurance firms or the defendant, and further down the line by the court.

A claimant who is claiming for a broken leg, yet posts photos on Facebook of him or herself rock climbing, will more than likely be caught out, and quite rightly so. A claimant who argues that as a result of an accident they cannot work, yet boasts on Facebook about their income, will not receive compensation for loss of earnings.

However, a claimant such as Ms Tambosso, who said she suffered from psychiatric injuries and yet was pictured on social media taking part in social activities, could give ammunition to a defendant who wishes to raise the suggestion of a potential fraud, even if this is not necessarily the case in reality.

The issue with social media is that people can choose what information they want the world to see. Social media is very often used only to show the good times rather than an individual’s struggles. However, as in the Canadian case, a judge could be inclined to interpret it as fraud, rather than a young woman trying to portray a happy life to those she shares her social media with.

Macks’ Advice

• Be careful – not only in what you post but also what your friends and family are posting about you.
• Be cautious – of friend requests and connections if you’re not sure who that person is.
• Be aware – of what your privacy setting are on all forms of social media.
• Be honest – in your personal injury claim and don’t exaggerate.
• Be warned – with more and more of our lives now spread across social media, liars will be caught out.