The biggest change in the handling of personal injury cases in the past 30 years is the use of videos from smart phones and security cameras.  Videos of an accident almost always removes all doubt as to how the accident occurred and who is at fault.

A few years ago, Stewart A. Sutton represented a parent in a social host liability wrongful death case of his teenage daughter.  His daughter and a 20-year old male friend were served alcohol at a party hosted by adults during the Covid pandemic.  Within 30 seconds of leaving the party in the male friend’s Jeep, the vehicle drifted off the road and hit a concrete culvert at 70 mph, causing the Jeep to flip over multiple times.  The horrific crash was captured by the Jeep’s dash camera video.  The autopsy revealed that both the driver and passenger had high blood alcohol content.  The adults who hosted the party adamantly denied that they had served alcohol to the underaged boy and girl; and they claimed that they were unaware that their underaged guests were impaired by alcohol when they left the party.  However, the videos and selfies recovered from the teenage girl’s iPhone showed that she and the 20-year old male friend were consuming alcohol in the presence of adults.  One video showed that she and her male friend openly “shot gunning” cans of hard seltzer in front of adults.

In a more recent case, Stewart A. Sutton represented parents of a young boy who broke 2 bones in his forearm when he fell off a gymnastic apparatus at a daycare center.  The video from the daycare center’s multi-function room showed that an adult was oblivious to the fact the young child had climbed onto the apparatus, fell, and was severely injured.  While other children gathered around the injured boy, the adult is seen walking away.

Practice Pointer for attorneys and clients: Always try to locate videos of the accident from security cameras, dashboard cameras, and/or smartphones from bystanders.