Last month, we brought to you a story about how social media can negatively affect your case.
During our last piece, we touched on how social media could wreck a personal injury case – for instance if someone is claiming emotional distress but then posting about happy events in their lives, or even posting happy emojis.
It looks like this trend is catching on even in the criminal law realm. For instance, in Virginia, a 12-year old student is being prosecuted for using a specific set of emojis. The student used the gun, knife and bomb emojis on her Instagram account. The school is charging her with threatening her school because of these messages.
She is not the only person for whom emojis have caused trouble. A Michigan man used a policeman emoji and a gun emoji directed toward the officer; the grand jury there had to determine if that was a real threat, or just someone having a little fun.
With cases on both the civil and criminal sides dealing with how emojis and other social media posts might reflect an individual’s mental or emotional state, that begs the question, should this even be considered as evidence and even allowed into cases as such?
If you have a personal injury, employment law or other case that involves social media, Hera Law Group can help. Call us at 978-637-2048 or e-mail office@heralawgroup.com to talk to one of our attorneys to set up a consultation.
To learn more about emojis in criminal law cases, you can read the original article here.
