Social Media in Lawsuits

 Posted on December 00, 0000 in Cook County personal injury lawyer

The danger social media can play in the outcome of a court case was amplified in a recent wrongful death case. Not only was the plaintiff sanctioned by the court, but his attorney was as well.

In 2010, Isiah Lester, of Virginia, was awarded $6,227,000 plus $2,350,000 in interest for the death of his 25 year-old wife Jessica. Jessica was killed in 2008 when a truck owned by the Allied Concrete Company had come around a corner on just two wheels, flipped and landed on top of Jessica’s car. The concrete truck, weighing over 60,000 pounds, crushed Jessica. The driver later pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He lost his commercial license and spent 30 days in jail.

Lester filed the lawsuit against both the driver and the concrete company. During the trial, Lester’s attorney, Matthew Murray, received a request for discovery from the defendants’ attorneys. They were requesting content Lester had on his Facebook profile. Also attached to the motion was a copy of a photo of Lester wearing a shirt which read “I love hot mom” and holding a beer can.

According to the deposition Murray’s paralegal gave, he told her to instruct Lester to go through his Facebook page and “clean it up” because ““we don’t want blowups of this stuff at trial.” The paralegal emailed Lester and he deleted 16 photos from his account, including the photo of him wearing the shirt. Then Murray instructed Lester to delete his Facebook account so he could tell the defendants that Lester had no account when the discovery motion was received.

That prompted the attorneys for the defendants to file a motion to compel and the Facebook account was reactivated. In a later deposition, Lester denied deactivating the account. The defense finally received the photos before the trial began and jurors were informed of what had occurred.

Because of the circumstances with the Facebook account, the trial judge later slashed Lester’s award by $4,127,000. The Virginia Supreme Court later overturned that decision and Lester was awarded the entire amount the jury said he was entitled to.

But the trial judge also ordered both Lester and his attorney to pay $722,000 to the defense team of lawyers for legal fees. And Murray has had license to practice law suspended for five years.

If you have been seriously injured in a car accident, you need the guidance of an experienced lawyer to ensure that incidents like this one won’t take place. Contact an Orland Park personal injury attorney to make sure you receive the compensation you may be entitled to.