Client Social Media Discovery for Plaintiff Attorneys

Case Law

Social Media Used as Evidence in Court Cases

Moretto v Nicolini-Femia 2017 ONSC 3945

In Moretto v Nicolini-Femia, social media evidence was used to discredit the plaintiff’s claims. The plaintiff was bit by a dog at a party, causing an injury and scarring to her face. The plaintiff brought an action claiming damages for psychological injury, arguing that the scar impacted her self-esteem and caused significant insecurities.

The defendant countered the assertion that the plaintiff’s self-esteem was being impacted by submitting social media posts on various platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which showed the plaintiff taking numerous “selfie” photos of herself.

While the Court agreed that the plaintiff suffered from psychological impairments resulting from the dog bite incident, they did not reach the significance that the plaintiff alleged. From the photos, Justice Shaughnessy concluded that the plaintiff’s injury did not deter her from social interaction as evidenced by her social media presence. As such, the social media evidence was used to reduce the plaintiff’s damages in the assessment of her general damages.


Social media is being used as evidence in personal injury cases and you can no longer ignore what your clients post online. Private Footprint is a powerful tool that allows lawyers to quickly view, organize, and make sense of the overwhelming volume of social media content generated by clients. You can easily monitor social activity for each client separately, flag specific posts, and quickly generate detailed reports which document your client’s lives before and after life-altering events.

Contact us today to learn more about Private Footprint and how you can start protecting the value of your files.

Make Sure Your Clients' Social Posts Aren’t Damaging Their Files