A SENIOR Liverpool personal injury barrister is warning potential claimants against leaving their social networking pages accessible to surfers who are not their “friends”.
Scott Donovan, who is head of Liverpool’s Atlantic Chambers on Cook Street, said defendants trying to avoid paying compensation are gleaning information online.
They are scouring sites like Facebook for photos and information that could be presented in court to undermine medical evidence.
Mr Donovan, who has been a barrister for more than 30 years, delivered the warning after his opponents in a car crash case seized upon pictures of his client that had been posted online.
Mr Donovan, who mostly represents claimants , told LDP Legal: “For lawyers, claims handlers, insurance adjusters and private investigators, the massive wealth of information that people freely place on Facebook can be a pot of gold or a smoking gun, depending on your perspective.
“The personal information contained on a person’s Facebook page may be highly relevant to matters at issue in litigation – when dealing with claims of all sorts, particularly in the personal injury context, the information contained on a Facebook page could make or break a case.”
Mr Donovan is representing a woman who was badly injured in car accident and suffered significant orthopaedic as well as psychological trauma, including adjustment disorder and anxiety.
But defendants in the case downloaded a picture of Mr Donovan’s client from Facebook, which showed her smiling on a Hen night with some of her friends.
They claimed that her psychological injuries were not as severe as was being made out because she was seen smiling.
Mr Donovan added: “It didn’t in any way materially undermine the medical evidence. Our approach to it was pretty robust – we said it’s irrelevant.
“But they were trying to put a slant on that aspect of the evidence.”
Mr Donovan said the use of social network evidence in cases in north America has led attorneys to advise clients to close their online accounts altogether.
But he also accepted defendants, such as the taxpayer-funded NHS Litigation Authority, could use information on Facebook to unmask fraudsters.
A man who was suing the NHS for £3m for “botched” surgery recently had to accept a reduced settlement after pictures of him dancing in Ibiza were posted online.
