Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog
In car accident cases, lawyers for each party are permitted to conduct written discovery by issuing subpoenas, propounding a list of written questions called “interrogatories,” or serving document requests. The use of discovery to obtain personal information posted on social media sites has recently become a hot topic. To what extent should discovery in a lawsuit be allowed when it seeks information from personal social media accounts? More specifically, should someone’s Facebook account be a subject of discovery when that person has been involved in a motor vehicle accident?
Recently, Federal Courts have addressed whether Facebook and social media sites are discoverable in civil litigation. In 2011, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, in Chauvin v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., denied the defendant’s request to access the plaintiff’s Facebook account and held that “…discovery requested is available through less intrusive, less annoying and less speculative means…there is no indication that granting access to Plaintiff’s private Facebook account would be ‘reasonably calculated’ to lead to discovery of admissible information.” Chauvin v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., Case No. 10-11735 (E.D. Mich 2011). The Court saw no reason for one party to have access to the other’s Facebook page where there were much less intrusive ways to obtain the same information. In 2011, a Pennsylvania Court in Piccolo v. Paterson held that the plaintiff in a car accident did not have to accept a friend request on Facebook from the defendant, particularly since the defendant wished to access the plaintiff’s posts and view pictures of the accident.
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