When Feeling Better Becomes A Liability
Our attorney Ken Denos joined Fox 13 to talk about two things that seem harmless on the surface but routinely damage personal injury claims: gaps in medical treatment and ordinary social media activity. Both come up constantly in real cases, and both catch people off guard because neither one feels like a mistake in the moment.
Acadia Law Group PC has worked with clients whose claims were challenged over exactly these issues, often before they ever spoke with an attorney.
The Treatment Gap Myth
Denos explained that insurers rely on a simple, flawed assumption. “If you were really hurt, you went straight to the doctor after your crash and stayed there until you were better.” When a claimant’s treatment shows a gap, whether it’s a missed follow-up or a few months without an appointment, adjusters use it as proof the injury wasn’t serious.
That reasoning doesn’t hold up. Denos pointed out that people stop treatment for reasons that have nothing to do with how much pain they’re in, and that improvement itself is often misread. “A stretch of time when your pain seems to disrupt your life less doesn’t mean the injury is healed. It means your pain was lower. Those are two very different things, and any doctor will tell you so.”
He also described how adjusters build on a single gap rather than treating it as an isolated data point. “They’ll note every missed appointment and highlight the dates when you tell the doctor you feel better,” then pair that with unrelated activity to construct a narrative that the claimant was never really hurt.
His advice for anyone returning to treatment after a break is to be specific with the provider about why. “In a personal injury claim, if it’s not in the medical record, it didn’t happen.” Documenting the reason for a gap, whether it was cost, work obligations, or pain that had temporarily improved, gives the file context an adjuster can’t simply reinterpret.
Social Media Becomes Evidence, Not Venting
The second issue Denos raised is one most people never connect to their claim at all. Ordinary posts, even ones meant to show recovery or a good day, get used against injured claimants constantly. “Insurance companies routinely and actively monitor the social media of claimants,” he said, and that monitoring extends beyond a person’s own profile to tags and mentions from friends and family.
The problem isn’t limited to obviously risky posts. Denos noted that even a positive, low-key photo can be twisted. “The image is the image. The video is the video. And the insurance company’s job is to make the jury believe what they see, not what you say.” A claimant photographed standing at a family event, even briefly and in pain the next day, can find that single image used to suggest the injury isn’t real.
If you’re already dealing with an insurer questioning your treatment or pointing to something you posted online, a Salt Lake City personal injury lawyer can help you understand what the adjuster is actually building toward before it affects your settlement.
What Claimants Should Do
Denos recommended a few concrete steps for anyone currently in the middle of a claim:
- Set every social media account to private immediately, without deleting or editing past posts
- Avoid posting anything about the crash, your injuries, or how you’re feeling until the case resolves
- Ask friends and family not to tag you in photos or videos during this time
- Tell your medical provider specifically why any gap in treatment occurred, so it’s documented
As Denos summarized it, “your social media is not a private diary. It is a public record that can and will be used against you in your injury claim.”
If an insurance company has flagged a gap in your treatment or something from your social media, don’t assume the explanation is obvious to them. A Salt Lake City personal injury lawyer at our firm can help you push back on that narrative and make sure your claim reflects what actually happened, not what an adjuster chose to highlight.