How Can Surveillance Footage Help Your Slip and Fall Case

Sustaining an injury as a result of a slip and fall accident can lead to significant financial and lifestyle setbacks. Individuals may be able to recover compensation for a slip and fall accident if the negligent actions of the property owner caused the incident. However, determining liability after a slip and fall accident can be challenging. Surveillance footage can be a valuable piece of evidence to use when working to determine exactly what happened.

What the Surveillance Footage Can Show

You will undoubtedly recall a phrase similar to “a picture is worth 1000 words,” and that’s not untrue. Photographs are a valuable tool when it comes to a personal injury claim. Photographs can help insurance carriers, legal teams, and jurors understand more about a specific injury claim.

If a photograph is worth 1000 words, then surveillance footage of an incident can be priceless. No two injury claims are exactly alike, but the situation, surveillance footage could help in the following ways.

Surveillance Footage is an Unbiased Witness

In a personal injury claim, there are often many witnesses, including those directly involved in the injury incident, as well as bystanders who may have seen what happened. The reality is that eyewitness statements are often flawed. Even individuals who are absolutely sure they are telling the truth may not have seen all the information needed to draw a conclusion about the claim. Additionally, various parties involved in the injury claim may have their own personal reasons for telling the story the way they do, including as a way to get out of liability for the incident.

Video surveillance footage can become an unbiased witness in the process. So long as the footage viewed has not been offered, it can provide insurance carriers and a potential jury with impartial evidence.

Establishing Negligence for the Claim

Video surveillance footage helps establish negligence, and establishing negligence is the only way to secure compensation through a personal injury claim. Video surveillance footage can help show any potentially hazardous scenarios that led to the slip and fall injury. This can include video footage showing the slip and fall hazard and whether or not any steps were taken to remedy the hazard before the incident occurred.

Clarifying the Sequence of Events

Slip and fall injury claims investigations will not only examine the exact moment an injury occurred but also the events just before the incident and the actions taken by individuals following the incident. Video surveillance footage can help show various aspects of the incident, including whether or not the injured party was acting carelessly, how every party involved reacted after the incident occurred, and whether or not there were other witnesses.

Countering Potential Defenses

It is not uncommon for alleged negligent parties to put forward incorrect information. Whether or not the other party is doing so to hide liability intentionally doesn’t matter. What matters is having the proof necessary to establish the negligent actions of the other party or parties involved. If the alleged negligent party puts forward information that is not entirely accurate, video surveillance footage can help uncover the inaccuracies.