In one case (see Figures 1 and 2), a bus was passing when the owner of a parked car opened the driver’s side door into the path of a cyclist who got injured as a result. Some accident sites are located on bus or train routes, so look for street signs, bus stops and train tracks. Many cameras are readily visible in the Google Maps street view, often located high on the first floor of buildings, either above parking lots or doorways, or on the side of the building below the roof line. Many apartments and businesses now have security cameras inside and out. Then you search the street view where the accident occurred for a security camera. You click on the satellite view and zoom in to a level of detail sufficient to see the structures surrounding the intersection. You have the client detail where she and the defendant were just before the accident, including cardinal directions and lane numbers, then the exact location of the accident. Before she goes into too much detail, you take control of the conversation, ask the client the street names of the exact intersection (it’s almost always an intersection), and pull it up on Google Maps. She swears she had a green light and that the defendant’s was red. She was a passenger in a car that was T-boned in an intersection. That means that a Google Maps street view survey for cameras should occur during the telephone intake.Īssume that you are sitting at your desk when the client calls. Security cameras generally record to digital hard drives, where footage is saved for anywhere from 24 hours to Hopefully, your client’s intake phone call comes soon after the accident. Obtaining it is an indispensable art that should be incorporated into the plaintiff lawyer’s repertoire. This article focuses on the art of gathering video evidence from nonparties. It elicits in the viewer a visceral reaction that taps into the reptile brain. It draws jurors into your client’s experience and offers them a respite for what many find to be the monotony of lawyers’ oration and witness testimony. Video evidence can spur otherwise recalcitrant adjusters to settle for amounts greater than what they would otherwise. Nothing says human losses like the sight of a bicyclist being run over and dragged under the defendant’s car. Nothing so powerfully illustrates your client’s damages as the image of the defendant’s car broadsiding your client’s car. Its utility to force defendants to admit liability is only a starting point. Video evidence is gold, even in admitted liability cases.
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