Personal Injury Law

Photographs Critical Evidence In Personal Injury Cases

By Mark Siesel, Esq.

When a client walks into our White Plains, New York office, having suffered a serious injury in a car crash, slip and fall accident, or from using a defective or dangerous product, we envision that this new case will reach trial, and want to preserve evidence as soon as possible. One of the most important types of evidence to prove your personal injury case in Court is photographs--of the smashed in back of your car, uneven and broken sidewalk or stair, or icy driveway. Each of these conditions frequently disappears and is lost forever shortly after the accident. The car is taken to a repair shop and declared a total loss; the owner of the stairway sends out a contractor to fix the broken stair, or the icy driveway is cleared up through a quick application of salt or a warming trend in the weather.

Thus, it is our advice that immediately after the accident, you have a friend, relative, or witness take photographs of the scene of the accident, and of the cars involved if it was an auto accident. Obviously, if you are able to, you can do this yourself, but often, the injuries you have suffered prevent this. If you wait until the next day or a couple of days later, particularly with regard to weather related accidents, the evidence is likely to be lost forever.

The reason that photographs are so critical is that insurance companies utilize them to determine the severity of an accident, and to decide in many cases whether your injuries were caused by the accident. The second reason is that if the case does not settle before trial, jurors often expect to have visual proof of the damage to your vehicle, or the stairway you fell on, before deciding whether the defendant is at fault for your injuries.

Full post as published by New York Legal Blog on August 10, 2010 (boomark / email).