Were you involved in a slip-and-fall accident inside a supermarket, a home improvement store, or another retail establishment that was caught on camera? You shouldn’t hesitate to tell the slip-and-fall case lawyer you’ve hired to provide legal representation.
This attorney can look into securing surveillance footage of your accident and use it to create a more compelling case against the store where your mishap occurred. This footage is often key evidence of negligence and liability in slip-and-fall accidents.
However, you should also understand the potential downsides of procuring footage that captures your accident. These could hinder your legal claim and make it more challenging for your lawyer to help you win in court.
Find out how it may help or hurt a legal claim in the aftermath of an accident involving serious injuries below.
How Surveillance Footage May Help Your Claim
More often than not, surveillance footage that catches slip-and-fall accidents on camera will help personal injury plaintiffs rather than hurt them. It will:
- Provide a clear look at an accident as it happens
- Highlight the negligence that a property owner demonstrated
- Showcase the cause of an accident and your subsequent injuries
For example, it might show you slipping and falling on a wet floor in the middle of a grocery store. It may also catch a store employee mopping this floor several minutes prior and failing to put out "Wet Floor" signs to inform customers about the hazardous conditions they created.
In this instance, your slip-and-fall case lawyer will appreciate having this footage to rely on during your legal claim. They will utilize it to help prove negligence on a property owner’s part and show that you shouldn’t be blamed for any aspect of your unfortunate accident.
How Surveillance Footage May Hurt Your Claim
While surveillance footage that captures an accident as it happens is usually helpful to personal injury plaintiffs, this isn’t always how things play out. In certain situations, it could significantly hurt a slip-and-fall claim.
For instance, it might show that you didn’t slip and fall on a wet floor or suggest that you may have attempted to fake an injury by slipping and falling on purpose. It may also point out that a store employee put out "Wet Floor" signs after all, showing that you chose to ignore them and walk on a slippery floor.
In these cases, a slip-and-fall lawyer won’t have the opportunity to lean on this footage as evidence during a lawsuit. They might also advise you against filing a legal claim in the first place based on what it reveals.
Additionally, the footage your attorney tracks down might not offer great quality. In this scenario, it might not help or hurt you. Instead, it may frustrate you by making it that much more difficult for your attorney to prove negligence in your claim.
Let a Slip-and-Fall Case Lawyer From Our Law Firm Help Build Your Claim
When you call on a slip-and-fall case lawyer from McLaurin Law, PLLC, to handle a legal claim, we will secure surveillance footage as slip-and-fall evidence. We will also work to prevent the spoliation of evidence in premises liability cases by prioritizing the preservation of video evidence.
Our attorneys also offer a wealth of experience in providing legal representation for injury victims and will assist you in other ways. They will help you avoid allowing the statute of limitations for slip-and-fall claims to expire, enabling you to move forward with a lawsuit.
Reach out to us at (713) 364-1895 to set up a consultation.
