The “spoliation of evidence” refers to evidence in a case that has been damaged, destroyed, or lost for some reason. Spoliation can prove disastrous for a personal injury case since every injury victim must possess evidence that helps prove his/her injury claim or lawsuit. This includes evidence that shows someone else was at fault for an accident and/or is responsible for any injuries incurred. Let’s take a closer look at spoliation and how you can help prevent it.
What is the “Spoliation of Evidence?”
As mentioned above, “spoliation of evidence” is a legal term that means certain evidence in a personal injury case has been:
- Lost,
- Altered,
- Damaged, or
- Destroyed.
Spoliation can either take place by accident or by a person’s intentional acts.
No matter the reason for the loss of evidence, spoliation can have devastating consequences for an injury case. This is because an injury victim will not have access to critical evidence that could help establish a party’s liability or the nature and extent of the victim’s injuries.
Consider, for example, the situation where a shopper slips and falls in a grocery store, injuring her knee and ankle. The shopper is aware that the store has surveillance video that captures the entire accident on film. However, in the course of preparing for her injury claim, the shopper learns that the video was somehow destroyed. Here, the accident victim loses all the reliable evidence of her claim, and she now has nothing else to show that the store was responsible for her incident.
How Can a Victim Help Preserve Evidence?
There is an effective way for injury victims to prevent spoliation and help reserve vital evidence in their injury case. This approach involves preparing a spoliation letter. This is essentially a letter written to parties who have evidence of an accident in their custody. The letter specifically requests that the party “preserve and retain any and all evidence that could be relevant to an injury claim.”
Note that a victim’s lawyer will typically send out spoliation letters on an injury victim’s behalf. Further, an attorney will send a letter to each party that may have some type of relevant evidence in their custody. Depending on the facts of the case, a lawyer may send a spoliation letter to:
- A particular business (e.g., a grocery store, restaurant, department store, etc.),
- An owner of property (e.g., the owner of a parking structure or a playground),
- Another injured party,
- A medical provider, and/or
- A government agency.
Once an attorney sends a spoliation letter, he/she can try to obtain any particular evidence (in someone else’s custody) by issuing a subpoena.
Contact Otorowski Morrow & Golden, PLLC
If you or a loved was injured in an accident, please know that Otorowski Morrow & Golden, PLLC is here to help. Our attorneys provide free consultations to all our potential clients. Further, the attorneys at our law firm have over 120 years of combined experience representing injured parties. Do yourself a favor and contact them now for the quality legal assistance you deserve.