Movies get us thinking that video cameras are everywhere, and that they capture everything. Think of your favourite crime show, or crime movie. There’s usually footage of a bad guy caught on camera in the act which is used in some way, shape or form, to move the plot along.
As an experienced personal injury lawyer, I can tell you that the way things work on TV are far from how things work in reality and inside of a Courtroom.
Cameras are everywhere, but they don’t always work the way you might think
Not all cameras are created equal. Some capture remarkably high quality footage which is of great help to a personal injury lawyer. Other cameras are able to track moving people or objects which is also very helpful to a personal injury lawyer. Other cameras capture pictures which are so terrible that they are unusable. Other cameras capture footage which automatically gets destroyed after a predetermined period of time (like 48hrs). If the footage is not preserved before it gets automatically destroyed, it’s lost forever. Some cameras can only record in daylight, so anything that happens at night is unusable. Other cameras don’t even work at all because they’re broken, or simply unconnected or have no power. Some cameras are “dummy cameras” meant to deter, instead of record. If you’re able to secure good and usable footage for a personal injury case, that’s wonderful. The footage will speak for itself. A Judge and Jury will be able to make up their own minds of what happened after reviewing the video footage. But don’t assume that just because there are cameras around, that they will produce useful footage. Often times, the footage is not very clear at all. You would be amazed the amount of times in a personal injury case that the lawyers track down the footage, only to find out that the camera was pointed metres short so the incident took place off screen.