Social Media Admissions in Insurance Litigation: Investigative Strategies, Spoliation Warnings, Use of Subpoenas to Obtain Evidence
Finding and Obtaining Evidence Adverse to Opponents From Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Other Sites
Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Insurance
- event Date
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
- schedule Time
1:00 PM E.T.
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
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This CLE course will provide guidance to insurance litigators for mitigating the risks that social media posts frequently pose for plaintiff/policyholders as well as tips for insurers to track down admissions on social media sites. The panel will discuss best practices for advising plaintiff/policyholders regarding their online posts and complying with the evidentiary duty to preserve social media postings. The panel will also outline strategies for drafting discovery requests by insurers relating to social media accounts, sending spoliation warning letters for social media posts, and crafting subpoenas to obtain social media evidence in a format that will be admissible at trial.
As of 2016, 78% of Americans had a social network profile on at least one of the many social media websites. Saavy litigators know that admissions by party opponents can often be found on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and other social media sites. Knowing how to locate and retrieve this evidence in a format that can be used at trial is essential to attacking the opponent’s case.
Due to the ever-changing landscape of social media outlets and the various privacy settings available to social media users, locating and preserving these admissions is daunting. Litigators must know the steps to take early on in litigation to find and prevent spoliation of this critical evidence. With the evolving case law on electronically stored data, counsel must be well-versed in methods to obtain these admissions in a format that will be deemed admissible as evidence at trial.
Listen as our authoritative panel of insurance litigators analyzes the best practices for locating social media posts by opposing parties as well as third parties, discovery requests that will uncover hidden social media accounts, warnings against spoliation of this crucial evidence, and strategies for obtaining social media posts from providers for use at trial.
- Locating social media posts by opposing parties and third parties
- Discovery requests regarding social media accounts
- Spoliation warning letters
- Subpoenas to social media sites for evidence to be used at trial
- Admissibility of social media posts at trial
- Recent case law regarding spoliation of social media evidence
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- How can counsel locate social media accounts of opposing parties and related third parties?
- When and to whom should spoliation warning letters be sent?
- What discovery can be used to uncover hidden social media accounts?
- How can counsel obtain social media posts from third-party providers?
- What is required for the admission of social media posts at trial?
