In a recent personal injury case the defense introduced a photo of the injury claimant depicting him in a smiling pose with two Playboy bunnies taken at the Playboy Mansion.[1] He testified he was “miserable” while on the trip and that he would have been smiling much more broadly in the photograph had he been feeling well. The photo was apparently downloaded by the defense from the injury claimant’s MySpace.com page.[2] He also took a trip to Maui during the time he was treating for injuries. 
In the end the jury awarded all the chiropractor bills presented. The plaintiff treated with message therapy on the referral of his chiropractor but was not allowed to present the massage therapy bills to the jury and therefore nothing was awarded for the message therapy bills the plaintiff incurred. The jury awarded nothing for pain and suffering, known as general damages. All these results were upheld on appeal.
The massage therapy bills were excluded by the trial judge because the injury claimant’s attorney failed to present evidence that the bills were reasonable and necessary.
Under Washington personal injury law, a plaintiff may recover only the reasonable value of medical services received, which may or may not be the same as the total of all bills paid. The plaintiff must prove that medical costs were reasonable and, in doing so, cannot rely solely on medical records and bills. Medical records and bills are relevant to prove past medical expenses only if supported by additional evidence that the treatment and the bills were both necessary and reasonable. [3]
In this case the injury claimant’s attorney simply failed to produce any such evidence as to the massage therapy bills. If the evidence had been properly presented the jury would have received the information and may have awarded bills for massage therapy.
The photo and caption is this article may be a bit flippant. But, there is a serious point.
Even for the most meritorious of cases, if you are injured and post information or images anywhere online it can be plucked from context and used against you. Perhaps you to avoid being a spoil-sport you tag along on your family vacation, or just can not afford to miss a business trip. Perhaps you are in pain the whole time. Perhaps you spend much of the trip sitting out activities, or taking pain medication and lying down in the hotel bed.
One image of you smiling on a beach (or, yes, with Playboy bunnies) or one online mention of you having a good time, or any piece of information that can cast doubt can be devastating to your claim.
Post nothing that may be plucked from context and spun against you. Forget privacy. We all now live in an electronic fishbowl.
By Travis Eller, Seattle personal injury attorney
[1] Hunt v. Thayer, No. 63958-7-I(Unpublished opinion field October 25, 2010).
[2] See footnote 23 of the opinion.
[3] Patterson v. Horton, 84 Wn. App. 531, 543, 929 P.2d 1125 (1997).