B.C. court orders limited disclosure of Facebook profile and vacation photos

The B.C. Supreme Court has ordered a law school graduate student injured in a car accident to disclose Facebook and vacation photos showing her participating in physical activities.

The plaintiff in the case, Tamara Fric, is claiming for damages resulting from injuries suffered in a motor vehicle accident on November 18, 2008. At the time of the accident, Fric was a first year law student at the University of Victoria.

In her Notice of Civil Claim, which contains allegations not yet proven in court, Fric says the accident caused chronic severe headaches, upper back pain and neck pain.

On the basis of these injuries, her claim states, she has “suffered loss and damage, including pain and suffering, loss of the amenities of life, past and future loss of earning capacity and opportunity and past loss of income, loss of educational advancement, past and future loss of domestic maintenance capacity and loss of mobility.”

In examination for discovery, Fric testified that in December 2008 she participated in a social and sports tournament with her law school colleagues, known as the “Law Games,” but her participation was limited due to her injuries.

She also disclosed she has a Facebook website that she has maintained since before the accident. She has posted photographs to Facebook, such as those of her participation in Law Games.

She also testified she has approximately 12,000 photographs, 759 of which were stored on her Facebook profile. They included pictures taken during her travel to Thailand, Fiji, Australia, Montana, Florida, California, Seattle, Portland and Cuba.

Counsel for the defendants in the case asked for a complete copy of the Facebook website, all photographs in her possession taken since 2008 and metadata associated with any digital photographs in her possession or control.

The B.C. Supreme Court said the defendant’s request was too broad and amounted to the “search of the filing cabinet” frowned upon in Desgagne v. Yuen.

Instead, the court ordered her to produce an amended list of documents that identifies the photographs and video in her possession and control in which in which she is featured: 1) participating in the December 2008 Law Games; and 2) on a vacation taken since Nov. 18, 2008.

“Photographs of Ms. Fric’s activities at the Law Games are relevant to the claim of physical impairment and social withdrawal,” the court ruled.

“Ms. Fric says that she participated in some activities while on vacations in the last several years but also that these activities were at times restricted or abandoned. Again, the defence should be given an opportunity to discover whether the claim for reduced physical capacity is accurate.”