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Facebook Evidence in Personal Injury Proceeding
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has delivered its ruling in Leduc v. Roman, a personal injury case resulting from alleged negligent driving on the part of the defendant. The issue was whether a plaintiff who maintains a private Facebook account could be compelled to produce elements of his profile, when no direct questions had been asked with respect to the same during the examinations for discovery. The Superior Court held that “a party who maintains a private or limited access Facebook profile stands in no different position than one who sets up a publicly available profile. Both are obliged to identify and produce any posting that relates to any matter in issue in an action.” However, the significant ruling was that the Court agreed that “mere proof of the existence of a Facebook profile does not entitle a party to gain access to all materials placed on that site.” It is through the discovery process that parties should be in a position to narrow down what profile content may be relevant to the case at hand.
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http://www.it-can.ca/newsletters/030609.pdf