Don’t Make These Social Media Mistakes in Your Wrongful Termination Case

There’s an old saying that a picture tells a thousand words. That’s true on social media, where even just a picture has said enough to ruin or damage someone’s employment law case.

Yes, it’s Evidence

We tend to post on social media without much thought. It’s our account, on our page or site, so we see it as being private. But it’s not; even if, on the site, it’s set to private. Social media posts can be requested by the other side in your case and can potentially be used as evidence against you.

Pictures Can Damage Your Case

The frustrating thing is that to a jury, a still picture can undermine your allegations during your employment law trial.

Take, for example, a case of wrongful termination, where the employee alleges that she has lost money, is out of work, and desperate for money now that she has no employment. But shortly after, there are pictures of that same employee on social media, on a vacation, or drinking at a bar, or at  an expensive restaurant.

Does the fact that you are having, for example, an expensive meal automatically mean that you must have money and you must be doing just fine and you have no grief at all about being illegally fired from work? Of course not; it’s just a single event, or a single picture. But that’s not how a jury may see it.

A jury who sees those photos can easily think that you aren’t that bad off; you seem to be having a  great time, and those types of photos can easily undermine your claim.

The Things You Say Online

It’s not just pictures that can do damage either.

Many employees, understandably angry at their employer (or former employer), will let the world know about it on social media. They may post on their own page, or post things on their employer’s page, scolding, demeaning or chastising the employer.

While anger is understandable, and you have a right to be upset, these kinds of social media comments, made in anger, can make you look vengeful and irrational.  This is not the look that you want to have in front of the Defendant, the judge or the jury.

Or, imagine someone who says they are out of work because of wrongful termination only to post that they had “a great day  at work!” That clearly undermines an employee’s claim for loss of wages.

Posting at Work

Have you thought about when you’re posting to social media? If you are posting online during work hours, you’re potentially giving an employer ammunition to tell the jury that you were fired for good, legitimate cause because you were online, posting content, instead of doing your job.

Accessing Your Profile

Think your profile is hidden or private, so your boss (or former boss) will never see it? It is not beyond many employers to create fake profiles and try to friend request you, or to look at current employees’ profiles who may have access to your profile, in order to see (and save) what it is that you posted online.

Don’t make mistakes in your employment law case. Contact the San Jose employment law attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today for help.

Source:

peoples-law.org/social-media-evidence-trial