How Are Lawyers Using Social Media to Aid in Litigation?

​Social media presents a valuable tool enabling lawyers to gather information and pursue litigation, according to the authors of an article in Inside Medical Liability. Social media can be particularly "fertile ground" in litigating personal injury cases, the author says. The author encourages lawyers receiving a new claim or lawsuit to engage vendors in order to investigate opponents, witnesses, and their own clients on social media and elsewhere on the internet. Employing experts to gather data could help identify "otherwise-ephemeral evidence or otherwise-unknown witnesses." A true forensic capture, the author explains, will even find content that was deleted, which can be flagged as such and help support a claim that evidence was destroyed. Judges may be reluctant to permit counsel to access an opposing party's social media history without limitations, so the author advises lawyers to use written discovery tailored to each case.