Written By: Rebecca Sorgiovanni
Reviewed By: Kevin Wong, Director and Personal Injury Lawyer
Last Reviewed: 5 July 2026
In 2025, a Queensland claimant alleging ongoing injuries was ordered to provide details, photographs, videos and social media posts about post-accident hiking trips. The court found the material was directly relevant to her capacity, credibility and damages assessment. Although those cases were decided in Queensland, WA courts also require parties to disclose relevant documents in litigation, including electronic records where they relate to matters in issue.
Can social media affect your compensation claim? Yes. In Western Australia it can trim your payout or end your claim outright. If you’re claiming after a car crash or a workplace injury, assume every post, tag, check-in and “like” is something an insurer might one day read out to a court. What follows is the checklist we give Soul Legal clients, including the one step most people get backwards.
Once you lodge a claim, your posts can become evidence. Insurers and their lawyers can seek them through the claims process, a subpoena or a court order, and anything that appears to contradict your injuries can reduce, or defeat, your compensation.
Can insurers really use my Facebook and Instagram?
Yes, and Australian courts have backed them for years. In 2015 a Queensland court ordered an injured claimant to hand over everything in their Facebook account. Justice Atkinson put it plainly: Facebook is “the equivalent of an ongoing diary of social events,” and a diary is discoverable (Digby v The Compass Institute Inc & Anor [2015] QSC 308). The same idea sits behind every compensation claim in the country. As another Queensland judge said, the price of asking a court for damages is that you disclose material you’d normally keep private (Attard v Hore [2002] QSC 437). The link between social media and personal injury claims is now settled ground.
In WA, insurers may use public social media monitoring and private investigators, but surveillance still has legal limits. The Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) restricts recording private activities and using tracking devices without consent, subject to specific exceptions.
What not to post during a WA compensation claim in 2026
Here’s the rule in one line: if you’d hesitate to show it to the insurer’s lawyer, don’t post it. The nine points below are what actually trip people up.
1. Photos of you being active
Skip them, even the ordinary ones. A shot of you carrying an esky, lifting a toddler or standing through a whole footy match can be read as proof you’re fine. In WA, a general damages payout turns on how serious and lasting your injury is, so one “good day” on camera gets used to argue the injury is minor. Every photo also carries a timestamp, which lets the insurer line it up against the exact week you told your doctor you couldn’t move. (More on how your payout is worked out.)
2. Updates on your recovery
Keep them off your feed. “Feeling stronger” or “almost back to normal” reads as a status update to you and as a medical opinion to an insurer. Recovery isn’t a straight line, but a cheerful post gets set against your specialist’s reports to suggest you’ve healed faster than your claim says.
3. Your location, check-ins and travel
Turn off location tags and stop checking in. Travel and event check-ins are the quickest way to contradict a claim built on limited movement or pain, which is exactly what sank the hiking claimant above. Check-ins also feed physical surveillance: a public post that shows your Saturday routine tells an investigator when and where to film you. The two work together, the online clue first and the camera second.
| Platform | The feature that trips claimants up |
|---|---|
| Check-ins, tagged photos, and old “memories” resurfacing on your timeline | |
| Geotags on posts, Stories, and gym or fitness content | |
| TikTok | Videos of you dancing, lifting or doing activities you say you can’t |
| Snapchat | Snap Map, which broadcasts your live location to contacts |
| A new role or “back at work” update that cuts against a loss-of-earnings claim | |
| Strava and fitness apps | Distance, pace and elevation, hard numbers that are far worse than a smiling photo |
4. Frustration about your claim
Vent to a person, not a platform. A post raging at the insurer or the “slow” process can be used to paint you as bitter or driven by money rather than injury. It rarely helps, and it hands the other side a line.
5. “But my account is private”
Privacy settings are close to useless once you’ve claimed, and this is the part most people get wrong. When you ask for compensation, you take on a duty to disclose material relevant to your injuries, and that duty beats your settings. Insurers can reach your content by requesting it in the claims process, by subpoena, through mutual friends, or by grabbing anything that was public when you posted it.
| What people assume | What actually happens in a WA claim |
|---|---|
| “My account is private, so they can’t see it” | Disclosure duties and subpoenas override privacy settings |
| “I deleted it, so it’s gone” | Deletion can look like concealment and still be recoverable |
| “My DMs are private” | Private messages can be subpoenaed as documents if relevant |
| “I’ll just untag myself” | The original post, tag and check-in still exist on other accounts |
| “Only my friends see my Stories” | A friend can screenshot or share a Story in seconds |
6. Liking, commenting and sharing
Stay out of it. A “like” on a post about your accident, or a comment like “that’s exactly what happened,” can be captured and read as your own words. Even reacting to a friend’s post about your case leaves a trail.
7. Should you delete your old posts?
No, and this is the move that backfires. Once a claim is running, deleting relevant posts can look like you’re hiding something, and that reads worse than an awkward photo. Credibility decides these cases. The hiking claimant didn’t lose over one trip; she lost because the gap between her posts and her evidence made the judge doubt her word. Wiping your feed creates the same doubt and adds the suggestion you had something to bury, which is close to how insurers treat exaggerating or hiding evidence. Stop posting and change nothing else until you’ve spoken to your lawyer.
8. Posting about the claim itself
Don’t announce it. Updates about court dates, settlement hopes or a thank-you to supporters can be premature or plain wrong, and they’re hard to walk back if your case shifts. Check with your lawyer before you post a word about the claim.
9. What your friends and family post
Loop them in early. You can’t control their accounts, but their photos, tags and check-ins can be used against you just the same. Ask them not to tag you or post about your injury or your social life while the claim is open.
How this plays out in WA workers compensation and ICWA motor injury claims
The rules bite hardest in the two claim types we handle most: workplace injuries and car accidents. In a workers compensation claim, social media checks and surveillance tend to ramp up when there’s a gap between your reported limits and your medical file, or when you’ve been off work a long time. Those claims now run under the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 (WA), which replaced the old 1981 Act in 2024. In a WA motor injury claim, the Insurance Commission can begin assessing the claim once the crash and injury claim are reported, including through the online crash report process or a Notice of Intention to Make Claim. If your claim follows a crash, see how we handle a car accident claim. Either way, your posts get judged against how the injury is said to affect your work and daily life.
Worried a post could hurt your claim?
Privacy still matters, but it does not automatically prevent relevant material being requested or ordered in a compensation claim. A lawyer can challenge requests that are too broad, irrelevant or disproportionate.
Talk to a Perth injury lawyer
Soul Legal has acted for injured West Australians since 2018, and our directors have run these claims since the 1990s. If you’re mid-claim and unsure about your social media, we can give initial guidance at no cost. If we take the matter on, eligible claims may be handled on a No Win No Fee basis, subject to our costs agreement. When you’re ready, talk to our Perth team.
Frequently asked questions
Can social media affect my compensation claim in WA?
Yes. Once you lodge a claim, your posts can be treated as evidence and disclosed to the insurer. Photos, comments, tags and check-ins that appear to contradict your injuries can reduce your payout or end the claim.
Can insurers see my private social media?
Often, yes. Privacy settings don’t stop an insurer requesting relevant material through the claims process or a subpoena, and mutual friends or public posts can expose content anyway. Treat “private” as visible.
Should I delete my social media during a claim?
No. Deleting relevant posts once a claim is on foot can look like concealment and damage your credibility more than the post would have. Stop posting and get legal advice before you touch anything.
Can my friends’ and family’s posts be used against me?
Yes. A photo, tag or check-in on someone else’s account can be used the same way as your own. Ask the people close to you not to post about your injury or activities while your claim is open.
Are my private messages and DMs safe?
Direct messages may be treated as documents and may be required to be produced if they are relevant to the injuries, losses or issues in dispute.
Do I have to hand over my social media?
If it’s relevant to your injuries or losses, usually yes. The duty to disclose is a real obligation in a compensation claim, though it has limits: requests must stay relevant, and a lawyer can challenge a fishing expedition.
What should I do with my accounts during a claim?
Stop posting about your injury, recovery, activities and the claim itself, switch off location tags, and leave old content in place. If you’re unsure about a specific post, ask your lawyer before acting.
Rebecca Sorgiovanni is the Director of Soul Legal, a trusted Perth-based injury compensation lawyer with over two decades of experience representing injured clients in complex litigation and tribunals across Western Australia.
