Yes. The trucking company's lawyers can ask for your posts, photos, and messages in discovery and use them to question how badly you're hurt. Don't delete anything, because that can be treated as destroying evidence. Set your accounts to private, stop posting about your life and the crash, and ask your lawyer before you change anything else.
How the case works
How a normal post gets used against you
You post a photo smiling at your nephew's birthday party two weeks after the wreck. You were in pain the whole time and left after twenty minutes. The photo doesn't show that.
Defense lawyers look for exactly this kind of thing. A picture of you holding a fishing rod, a check-in at a truck stop, or a comment that says 'feeling better' can be put in front of a jury as proof you're not as hurt as you say.
Private doesn't mean protected
Private settings keep strangers out. They don't keep a court out. In a lawsuit, the other side can ask for relevant posts and messages through discovery, and a judge can order you to hand them over. Federal Rule 26 sets the general scope of discovery in federal court, and states have similar rules.
Friends and family can hurt you too. If your cousin tags you at a cookout, that post is out there even if yours are locked down.
Don't delete, don't scrub
Your first instinct might be to wipe your accounts. Don't. Once a claim is likely, deleting posts can be treated as spoliation, which means destroying evidence. Courts can punish that in different ways, and it can do more damage than the post ever would have.
The same goes for texts, dash cam clips on your phone, and messages with your dispatcher or other drivers. Keep them.
What to do instead
For truckers, this includes the driver Facebook groups, CB-style chat apps, and YouTube or TikTok channels a lot of drivers run. Talking about the crash in a drivers' group is still talking about it in public.
- Set every account to the most private setting.
- Stop posting until your case is done, or keep it to nothing about activities, travel, or the crash.
- Don't accept new friend or follow requests from people you don't know.
- Ask family not to tag you or post about your injuries.
- Talk to your lawyer before deactivating, deleting, or editing anything.
It's not just your posts
Other data from your phone and accounts can come up too. Fitness apps that log your steps, location history, and even game or streaming activity can sometimes be requested if they're relevant to your injuries or the crash.
The same logic works the other way. If you were in a car hit by a rig, your lawyer may ask for the truck driver's phone records, messages with dispatch, and posts from around the time of the crash. Discovery isn't only about you.
Be honest with your lawyer about what's out there
Tell your lawyer about every account you use, including old ones and ones under a nickname. It's much easier to explain a photo early than to get surprised by it at a deposition.
If something online looks bad out of context, your lawyer may be able to show the full story: the pain afterward, the short time you were there, or the date the photo was really taken.
What to do now
- Turn every account to private today.
- Stop posting about the crash, your injuries, work, or activities.
- Don't delete or edit old posts, texts, or photos.
- Ask family and friends not to tag you.
- Ask your lawyer before making any other change to your accounts.
Go deeper
Related questions
Sources
- Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 26: Duty to Disclose; General Provisions Governing Discovery — Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
Federal regulations and crash statistics are updated periodically. Figures cited on this page reflect the referenced publications at the time of writing; check the source for the current edition.