January 11, 2021

You posted something after your car accident, a photo, a status, a quick “I’m fine” to reassure family, and now you’re wondering if you should delete it. Stop before you do. In a Florida injury case, deleting the wrong post can hurt you far more than leaving it up. Here’s what’s really retrievable, and what to do instead. TL;DR — QUICK SUMMARY Deleted social media content is often not truly gone. It can survive in data archives, screenshots, tagged posts, and platform records. Relevant social media is discoverable in a Florida injury case, and privacy settings do not shield it (Nucci v. Target Corp.). Deleting posts after you have a claim can be spoliation of evidence, which carries serious penalties, sometimes worse than the post itself. Insurance companies actively monitor your accounts, and your friends’ and family’s, for anything that contradicts your injuries. The safe move is simple: don’t delete anything, stop posting, and talk to your lawyer before touching your accounts. The Reyes Firm Worried a Post Could Sink Your Claim? Get your case reviewed before you touch your social media. Had a bad day? Contact Us Now Nucci 2015 Set the social media rule Fla. 4th DCA Discoverable Relevant posts, even if private Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280 Spoliation Risk of deleting after a claim Sanctions / adverse inference $0 Upfront cost on contingency Pay nothing unless you recover Are deleted social media posts really retrievable? Often, yes. Hitting delete removes a post from your timeline, but it doesn’t guarantee the content is gone. Platforms keep data behind the scenes, and the “download your data” archive feature can surface content you thought you erased. Beyond that, anyone who saw the post, including an insurance investigator, may have already screenshotted it, and friends or family may have shared or been tagged in the same content. There’s also the legal route. In a lawsuit, the other side can subpoena the platform or compel you to produce your account data, including deleted material. So the honest answer is that deleting is unreliable as a way to hide something, and as you’ll see, it’s also one of the most dangerous things you can do. Can the other side see my social media if I file an injury claim? Yes, to the extent it’s relevant to your case. When you file a personal injury claim, you put your physical and mental condition at issue, and that opens the door to discovery of social media that bears on it. Florida’s leading case, Nucci v. Target Corp., made this clear: photographs and posts that are relevant to an injury claim are discoverable, and your privacy settings do not protect them. The court treated social media as a kind of free surveillance, valuable to anyone defending a claim. That doesn’t mean the other side gets unlimited access to everything. Discovery still has to be relevant and reasonably tailored. But the takeaway is blunt: marking your account “private” is not a shield. If a post is relevant to your injuries or activities, a court can order you to hand it over. ⚠️ Deadline Warning: The moment you have a potential claim, you have a duty to preserve evidence, including social media. You also generally have two years to file an injury lawsuit under Florida Statute § 95.11(3)(a). Don’t delete anything, and don’t wait to talk to a lawyer about both. Watch: How social media can affect your injury claim This short video explains how posts, photos, and even deleted content can shape what your case is worth. Not sure whether something you posted is a problem? The Reyes Firm offers a free case review. Why is deleting posts the worst thing you can do? Because deleting can turn a minor problem into a major one. Once you reasonably anticipate a claim or a lawsuit, the law expects you to preserve relevant evidence. Destroying it, including scrubbing your social media, is called spoliation of evidence. Courts take it seriously, and the penalties can be severe. The most common consequence is an adverse-inference instruction, where the judge tells the jury they may assume the deleted content was unfavorable to you. In other words, you don’t just lose the post, you hand the other side a weapon, and you can also face monetary sanctions. A harmless photo you deleted out of caution can end up looking like a guilty cover-up. That’s why the rule is so important: don’t delete, preserve, and let your lawyer guide what happens next. 💡 Did You Know? Courts have imposed heavy sanctions on people, and even their attorneys, for deleting social media content after litigation became foreseeable. The danger isn’t only that the content resurfaces, it’s that the act of deleting it can be used to argue you were hiding something. Preserving everything and posting nothing new is almost always the safer path. Source: Nucci v. Target Corp., 162 So. 3d 146 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015). How do insurance companies actually use your social media? Aggressively, and from the moment you file. Insurers and their investigators monitor claimants’ accounts looking for anything that contradicts the injuries you’ve described. A photo of you smiling at a barbecue, a check-in at the gym, a vacation post, or a video of you lifting your child can all be twisted into an argument that your pain and limitations are exaggerated. It doesn’t stop at your own profile. They also look at your friends’ and family’s accounts, public posts, and photos you’re tagged in. A single out-of-context image can do real damage, even when the truth is that you pushed through pain for one moment and paid for it for days. Just as your medical records can be used against you, your social media becomes part of the evidence, whether you intended it to or not. 🛡️ Your Rights Under Florida Law: While relevant posts are discoverable, the other side does not automatically get access to your entire account. Under Florida’s rules of civil procedure, discovery must be relevant