Tracking Down the Evidence in Video for Fortune 500 Premises Liability Defense
Supporting Counsel: Defense
Services: Video Presentation & Editing, Trial Prep, In Court Technology Support, Trial Services & Logistics
When the evidence leads directly to the culprit it’s a dream come true, but it’s rarely reality. However, JURIS Litigation Technology Solutions, recently made the dream come true for the defense in what should have been a standard slip and fall for a Fortune 500 retailer.
As expected, Plaintiff’s council sought to prove negligence, but video not only supported Defense’s position of ignorance of any danger, but also showed how Plaintiff went out of their way to create their own dangerous circumstances.
JURIS LTS pulled three low quality store videotapes cataloging Plaintiff’s actions from parking lot to location of the incident inside the store vestibule. Piecing the footage together in real-time showed Plaintiff:
- Walking through three different puddles in an otherwise dry parking lot,
- Leaving wet footprints on the curb by the door where other patrons were leaving no footprints, and then
- Slipping on the “wet floor” right in front of an employee who had been standing in the dry vestibule for several hours.
Our ability to:
- Zoom in and clear up what the Plaintiff was doing in the parking lot, despite the quality of the tapes,
- Compare it to the “dry activities” of everyone else on the tapes, and
- Play it slowly, in sequence compiled from several different cameras
made it clear that there was no wet floor, or need for preventative measures at the location of the accident.
JURIS LTS’ video expertise made it easy to deny knowledge of any wet floor situation with seamless, specific use of video evidence.