Use Case Web/Social Media Forensics for Personal Injury Attorneys
“Mom loses $820,000 injuries claim after she was pictured tossing a Christmas tree.” That’s the headline of an NBC article from February of 2024.
While this incident happened in Ireland, how would you like to have a client full of surprises like this and not know until it’s too late?
Personal Injury attorneys seek our help to see what exists publicly about their client to prepare their strategy going into depositions and trials so they don’t overlook something that can derail the case.
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We find, analyze, and preserve online evidence.
We’re tenacious, ethical, and effective.
We save you and your team time.
The Power of Digital Evidence: OSINT and Social Media Forensics
First, let’s define some things.
OSINT stands for Open Source Intelligence. This is the practice of collecting publicly available information, analyzing it, and turning the findings into actionable intelligence. An arm of OSINT is Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT). SOCMINT follows the cycle of OSINT we mentioned at the open of this section, but we’re using social media platforms find things and make use of them.
Examples of OSINT/SOCMINT Sources:
- News articles
- Public government documents
- Public social media post (images, video, text)
- Timestamps and location
In our experience, with how people have several ways to connect with others digitally, they leave breadcrumbs behind in their digital footprint. We’ve encountered devastating social media posts and news articles that our attorney clients are grateful to have. It helps them get down to the bottom of things with client so they can best manage the lawsuit.
We’ve observed our attorney client’s clients behave in ways that are counter to their claims. Things like the Mom in the news article we started this page off with.
There are times we’re asked to look into the other side. Business records, combined with other public records, helped us find hidden assets for our clients.
Let us take care of hunting for evidence and the technical stuff that goes along with our line of work. This allows you to free your time up to better serve your clients.
Real-World Use Cases: How Attorneys Can Use OSINT and Social Media Forensics
In general, here are some ways our clients leverage OSINT/SOCMINT and Social Media Forensics for their cases.
Building your case strategy
In this capacity, our expertise is brought in to see if your client is engaging in activity counter to their claim. We first look at the complaint that’s filed to understand the kinds of things they shouldn’t be doing. For example, if it’s spinal injuries, we want to see if the your client is engaging in any activity that puts strain on their spine. Or are they talking about the case on social media.
We also leverage other sources in the public domain to see if your client has a pattern of behavior that can negatively affect the outcome of the case.
By presenting this evidence to you, you can use it to get to the bottom of what the story really is. For example, let’s say your client’s claim is they injured their spine as a result of a vehicle collision. Then let’s say we find video of them helping a friend or family member move. That finding, along with others, are sent to you. Then you have a conversation with your client about the video. You could learn from that talk that the their doctor medically cleared them to lift items of no more than fifteen pounds, as an example. This helps build the defense of the case.
What if we find something that appears fraudulent?
The same thing.
It’s included in our findings and sent off to you. With this evidence in hand, you need to decide how to handle the situation ethically.
Because of the nature of OSINT and SOCMINT, there are times where there is nothing available to analyze and preserve. There are times we get you close to the proverbial finish line, but we can’t find that last piece of the puzzle. All is not lost.
There may be something in the reporting that helps you anticipate the kinds of questions the opposing party may ask. It may also bring up other avenues for you to have us explore that you didn’t think about.
This is how OSINT and SOCMINT helps you build your case strategy.
Finding hidden assets
Public government records are a wealth of data and information. So is social media for finding and verifying assets.
Your client may be in the position where you feel that what they experienced physically and psychologically means a higher judgment. This is where you might consider seeking the other party’s assets.
- On this front, once we start pulling that thread, there are several things to accomplish.
- Can we establish a timeline? This could be when the asset was bought and/or hidden. This could be activity the opposing party engaged in to hide the asset.
- Can we find an estimate of what the asset’s value is appraised at?
- Can we find online where the asset is located?
These are all challenges we are up for when it comes to finding hidden assets.
Why Attorneys Need Experts to Handle Digital Evidence
What we do is time-intensive: There are times we run into mountains of online evidence we need to analyze and preserve. There are times when we find absolutely nothing. For you to spend time doing this type of work, takes you away from helping your client.
Risk of missteps: If you go about collecting and preserving evidence the wrong way, you’re at risk of having your evidence tossed.
Technical expertise: We know how to find and pick apart the evidence we come across. This also includes verifying things like account ownership with it comes to social media profiles. Our roots in Information Security also add to the technical expertise should something go wonky.
Stress-free results: Spend time on the case for your client. Don’t add more stress by looking for evidence and properly preserving it. Leave that to us. The only thing you’ll have to do is go through our reporting.
Leverage our expertise so that you don’t miss out on any critical evidence.
Success Stories: Real Examples of Digital Evidence In Action
The Significant Other: Our client’s client posted pretty frequently on social media, but there wasn’t much we could analyze. That all changed when our trail led to their significant other. They, the significant other, posted images and videos on their social media publicly that showed our client’s client engaging in activity counter to their claims. This goes to show that posting innocent things to social media are very useful.
Party on!: In this particular case, the Plaintiff was involved in a collision. Once we finally found the social media platforms they used, posts started piling up about their use of different substances. Our client was floored when they received our report because of how the Plaintiff presented themselves in person. The client also knew that this meant they had to anticipate questions about their client operating a motor vehicle under the influence.
Hiding assets: We were asked to check out something on the Defendant’s side of things. Our client suspected they were hiding assets. We’ll just say that we love public government records and legal filings. The information we discovered helped us establish a timeline of how an asset was transferred that hid in plain sight.
This is how digital evidence impacts cases when you have experts who know where to look and how to analyze findings.
Why Choose Us For Web/Social Media Forensics?
Specialized knowledge: We have over a decade of experience in the OSINT world because of our background in Information Security. We know how to look for things, where to look for them, and how to analyze what we’re looking at.
Admissible results: We work hard to ensure we gather information from sources ethically and that findings are preserved to increase your chance of success with evidence submission.
Impactful findings: Our reporting, when something is discovered, helps with your legal strategy and potentially find hidden assets.
Customized for your case: We aren’t cookie cutter. We work to achieve your goals for your specific case.
Your Next Step
Contact us for a free consultation to learn how online evidence can bolster your case. Use the contact form below to reach out.
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