Using Your Watch as a Witness: Data on Your Wrist Can Be Used to Help or Harm Your Personal Injury Case

Most of us are familiar with the concept of the “black box” recovered after airplane crashes. The box contains information that helps investigators determine the causes and effects of the crash.

What we are not used to is the idea of carrying a similar black-box device on our wrists every day. The fitness devices once used solely to count steps and track exercise now monitor and record a range of data we may not even be aware of. That information can be used to either strengthen or destroy your claim for damages after an injury caused by an auto accident, truck collision, medical mistake, faulty product, motorcycle accident, or other incident caused by someone’s irresponsible actions.

Our legal team is well aware of the potential benefits or harms that can result from the use of information collected by smart watches, fitness trackers, and similar devices. We know how to put the information to effective use and how to counter attempts to use it to block an accident claim. However, accident victims themselves need to be aware of ways to protect themselves from misuse of this information.

How Your Watch Could Help Strengthen Your Claim for Damages

We will start with the positive aspects of smart watches and fitness trackers. These devices can measure factors that reflect your life before, during, and after the injury.

Before you were injured, your history in the device’s app might show that you averaged 8,000 steps per day in your regular routine and that you exercised for 30-60 minutes four or five days each week. The device might reveal the contrast in your fitness and ability after the accident. You might only be able to manage a few hundred steps each day rather than the robust walking lifestyle you enjoyed before. Instead of recording fitness activities such as running, kickboxing, and high-intensity interval training, the record might show only a few rehabilitative yoga sessions with minimal activity. Or, more likely, very little movement at all. This record can be used as evidence to show the effect the injuries have had on your life.

Using your smart watch to monitor your sleep can also provide evidence to bolster your claim for damages. These devices have a variety of built-in sensors that can track factors such as:

• Body temperature
• Heart rate
• Breathing rate
• Snoring
• Body movement
• Blood oxygen levels
• Time awake and asleep

Data collected by a smartwatch or sleep tracker can reveal how well the wearer sleeps and how long they sleep each night. When a pattern of behaviors disrupts sleep, the information collected provides evidence of that disruption. Instead of simply stating that pain or emotional trauma from an accident is preventing you from sleeping well, you can produce data that shows how your sleep is being interrupted. Being able to quantify this effect of your injury can provide a tremendous advantage when you are seeking damages for the impacts on your life.

Information from your fitness tracker or smart watch can also support your claim for damages in other ways, too. For instance, if you suffered traumatic brain injuries in a collision or fall, your watch may have recorded the time and force of the impact.  

Data from Your Watch Could Be Used Against You

As noted above, the news is not always good when it comes to data collected by your smart watch. The lawyers for the insurance company may be able to take legal action to access your data and then try to use that data to claim that you aren’t impacted much by your injuries. 

Just as when defense teams use information from social media, they can take a small piece of evidence and apply an incorrect interpretation to fight your claims. For example, if your heart rate was high during a particular time, the defense team could argue that you were exercising, and that means you weren’t injured. In reality, your heart rate may have been high because you were anxious about test results, paying bills, or some issue entirely unrelated to your injury.

At Searcy Denney, we’ve seen these attempts before, and we know how to be prepared with explanations to counter the assertions of insurance companies and defense teams. If data from GPS shows that you attended an event away from home when you were saying that your injuries prevented you from doing much of anything, we may be able to produce evidence to show that it was a special event and that accommodations needed to be made for your injuries, such as the provision of a wheelchair.

It is important to realize, however, that if you are attempting to exaggerate the severity of your injuries or their ongoing impact on your life, data from your smartwatch could reveal flaws in your case. It is vitally important to be completely honest with your attorneys about the genuine impacts of your injuries and their impact on your life. When prepared in advance, a skilled attorney can often produce evidence and arguments to explain an apparent discrepancy. But when a defense team produces information that surprises the attorneys representing the accident victim, it can be much more challenging to overcome.

Put the Experienced Attorneys at Searcy Denney Tallahassee to Work for You

To obtain a full and fair recovery after an accident, it is important to understand how to enforce your legal rights and to assess the value of your case, including amounts for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering. This knowledge is critical, particularly if you’ve already been offered a settlement. Insurance companies use a variety of tactics to undervalue claims and shift liability, and if you are not prepared, their legal teams will find a way to defeat you.

At Searcy Denney Tallahassee, we know how to use evidence, such as data from your smartwatch, to build your strongest claim for compensation. We also know how to overcome the defense teams’ strategies. For a free consultation to learn what your case may be worth, we invite you to contact our team by calling 888-549-7011 or contacting us online.