Personal Injury Cases and Fitness Trackers
Fitness tracking devices have been on the shelves for several years, but are just now finding their way into the courtroom. In Calgary, Canada, attorneys for an injured person are using data from her Fitbit to show in court how her injuries have impacted her daily life.
What’s surprising to me about this is that it’s the plaintiff utilizing this data to back up her claims, not the insurance company’s lawyers trying to use it to discredit her. For several years insurance companies have been demanding access to people’s Facebook and other social media accounts hoping to catch evidence of them enjoying life or exercising when they claim to be hurt. Sometimes the insurance company will even hire a private investigator to secretly photograph or video the plaintiff doing things in public in order to discredit them.
By volunteering her data, the Calgary plaintiff is essentially end-running around the insurance company and giving evidence helpful to her case. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see insurance companies issuing subpoenas for people’s wearable fitness trackers in the very near future.