Will Stores Release Video Surveillance In A Slip and Fall Case?

If you suffered a slip and fall accident on someone else’s premises, then they should compensate you for the injuries that you suffered. However, it might not be that simple because the owner of the property will try to avoid taking responsibility for the accident; they might claim that you were trying to commit fraud or that you received your injuries elsewhere. Unfortunately, it can sometimes be difficult to prove that a slip and fall accident took place, which means that it is your word against the property owner’s.

One surefire way of proving that you suffered a slip and fall accident is via surveillance footage. If there was a camera on the property that captured your accident, then its footage can help to bolster your case. Unfortunately, attaining this footage is easier said than done, which is why you need a slip and fall lawyer to help you. They know the procedures to get the footage that can help your case. So contact a lawyer as soon as possible after suffering a slip and fall accident if you want the best chance of securing any surveillance footage and getting the compensation that you deserve.

Why Surveillance Footage is Important

If you suffered your slip and fall accident where there were no witnesses, then the topic of who is responsible could come down to your word against the property owner’s. They could claim that your injuries were pre-existing or that you are trying to scam them. Surveillance footage would provide clear, impartial evidence of what actually happened. That is to your benefit since the property owner is unlikely to dispute their own video footage. Once the property owner sees that there is proof of what actually happened to you, they will be far more likely to accept your settlement offer.

How Long is Surveillance Footage Preserved?

There is no law stating how long a business has to keep their surveillance footage. Many businesses use digital cameras that run on a loop, and have limited storage space. That means footage constantly gets overwritten; in some cases, it might get overwritten every 24 hours, in other cases, it might be a few days.

That means that when surveillance footage gets deleted, it may not necessarily be a malicious act on the part of the property owner. Of course, some owners will attempt to purposefully delete or alter the footage before the camera automatically does so. No matter the case, you need to contact a lawyer quickly if you want the best chance of preserving any surveillance footage.

How to Obtain Surveillance Footage

There are a few ways that you can get surveillance footage showing what happened during your slip and fall, but you will first need an attorney to do so. That is why you should contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible after your accident.

Ask the Property Owner to File an Incident Report

Some businesses have a procedure where an incident report needs to be filed if someone gets injured on the property. Once the report has been filed, the business is required to preserve any surveillance footage that exists. This does not mean that they have to give you the footage, but it does mean that they have to hang on to it for a while. That can give you some time to get a lawyer to compel them to hand over the footage before spoliation occurs, which is when the footage gets tampered with or destroyed.

Send a Preservation of Evidence Letter

This is something that your attorney needs to do, which is one of the reasons why you should get in touch with one as soon as possible after your accident. Your attorney will send a preservation of evidence letter— aka a spoliation letter— to the person in charge of the property where the accident occurred. The letter will let the property owner know that the accident victim is being represented by an attorney so any evidence, including surveillance footage, should be preserved. This can prevent the property owner from destroying any footage that exists before your attorney can claim it.

Take Legal Action

Sometimes footage will get destroyed even if a preservation of evidence letter has been sent to the property owner, or they will simply refuse to turn it over to you. If that happens, then you can take legal action against the property owner. The first thing you can do is to file a lawsuit against the property owner and ask the court to issue a subpoena demanding that they turn over the footage.

If the negligent party destroys the footage then you will be entitled to an adverse inference jury request when you take your case to the court. This means that the jury will be asked to consider whether the footage was purposely destroyed in order to hide any evidence. If the jury believes that to be the case, then they can reasonably assume that there was something damning in the footage that would have hurt the property owner and helped you. That means the footage can still be useful even if it has been destroyed.

A Lawyer is Vital in Obtaining Surveillance Footage

As you can see, you cannot obtain the footage by yourself, you will need a lawyer to help you. In all personal injury cases, it is vital that you retain an attorney as soon as you can, but it is especially important if there is footage of your accident. That evidence can strengthen your case and weaken the defendant’s case, which is why they might want to get rid of it. If you contact a personal injury attorney early, then that will lower the chances of their taking that action. So get in touch with an attorney after you have been in a slip and fall accident.