Doorbell Cameras, Dashcams, and Phone Data: New Evidence in Injury Cases

Modern digital evidence, such as doorbell footage, dashcam recordings, phone records, and wearable devices, can provide crucial information in a personal injury investigation. You can use digital data to support your personal injury claim and prove the defendant’s liability. However, you must act quickly to identify and recover digital evidence before it is deleted or overwritten.

Talk to your attorney about subpoenaing and authenticating digital evidence for use in a personal injury lawsuit. For more information about accessing and using digital evidence, talk to your personal injury attorney.

Using Digital Evidence for Your Case

To prove your personal injury claim, you need evidence to support your case. Physical evidence can show the defendant caused your injuries and is liable for your damages. Without evidence of the defendant’s negligence, you’re left with only your word against theirs. Evidence of negligence can include witness statements, medical records, police reports, and post-accident photographs.

Increasingly, injury victims are using digital evidence to support their personal injury claims, including dashcam footage, security cameras, doorbell cameras, smartphone data, fitness trackers, and vehicle data recorders.

Digital data and video surveillance can prove or disprove liability in a car accident, pedestrian accident, slip-and-fall injury, or other personal injury claim. For example, an injury victim in a car accident can use surveillance footage showing the other driver was speeding as evidence of the defendant’s negligence.

Doorbell Camera and Surveillance Footage

Many homeowners use doorbell cameras, like Ring cameras, to record activity at their front door. These cameras record video when delivery drivers or other visitors walk in front of the camera.

However, they can also record background activity, including vehicles or pedestrians passing by. Doorbell camera footage can show reckless drivers, unleashed dogs, or hazardous conditions on property.

Dashcam Recordings

Many drivers install dashcam video recorders to capture evidence of what they experience. Some vehicles, including commercial trucks, emergency vehicles, and police cars, have active dashcam surveillance systems.

Dashcam recordings can support car accident claims by showing reckless driving, traffic violations, and what happened just before a crash. Drivers can use dashcam and rear-camera footage to support accident claims and dispute the defendant’s version of what caused the accident.

Smartphone Tracking and Social Media Posts

Smartphones track users through wireless location data, phone activity, and metadata, providing detailed information. Smartphone GPS data can show the user’s location over time, including travel speed, route history, and vehicle movement. Social media activity can show when the user was on their phone, along with video and photo evidence.

If you file a personal injury claim alleging a hit-and-run accident, you can subpoena the defendant’s phone records to show the driver was in the area at the time and quickly left the scene after the accident. Social media posts and likes can also show the driver was distracted at the time of the accident, supporting a negligence and liability claim.

Vehicle Black Box Data

Modern vehicles have event data recorders (EDRs) that record vehicle information, including speed, braking, seat belt use, and other driver behavior. Drivers can use their own vehicle EDRs or the defendant’s EDR to support their injury claim.

For example, you can dispute the defendant’s claim that they followed traffic laws with black box data showing the driver exceeded the speed limit or failed to stop at a traffic signal.

Fitness Trackers and Wearable Devices

Fitness trackers and smartwatches can track user data, including location, movement, and even heart rate. This kind of information can support your accident claim and document damages after the accident.

For example, if you average 10,000 steps per day before an accident and drop to fewer than 1,000 steps a day after, that can show reduced mobility. Movement and fitness data can show the extent of your injuries and how the accident affects your activities of daily living.

Is Digital Evidence Reliable?

To admit evidence into the court record, you must show it is relevant and reliable. For some physical evidence, you need a chain of custody to show it wasn’t tampered with between the accident and its presentation in court. Depending on the evidence type, you may need expert testimony to authenticate the data and explain it.

A forensic specialist can work with your legal team to recover digital files and authenticate the video or data. Authenticating digital evidence involves using metadata and timestamps to show the digital file’s origin and source. An expert witness can explain to the jury how the digital files were created and maintained, with support from a custodian of records.

How To Get Digital Recordings and Phone Records

You can use your own digital evidence, but obtaining digital recordings and data from other sources is more complex. Generally, your attorney will need to subpoena digital records from the defendant and other parties. A subpoena is a court order requiring someone to preserve and turn over evidence relevant to the case.

If you think digital evidence may exist, write down as much detail about the accident as possible, including where it occurred, the time of day, and whether there were any eyewitnesses. Your attorney can use this information to locate security camera footage or Ring cameras. Your lawyer can then contact local businesses and homeowners to secure any footage for your claim.

If the defendant deletes digital evidence after the judge issues a litigation hold or preservation letter, the judge or jury can make an adverse inference against the defendant, assuming the deleted evidence was negative.

Act Quickly To Preserve Digital Records

Time is of the essence when preserving and accessing digital records. Some video and data recordings are only saved for a short period and are automatically overwritten or deleted.

If you wait too long to contact a personal injury lawyer to locate and preserve digital records, it may be too late. Your attorney can quickly search for potential recordings and phone data and preserve them for use in your personal injury claim.

Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer To Preserve Digital Evidence

Even if no one witnessed your accident, video cameras, phone records, and vehicle data can provide strong evidence to support your personal injury claim. However, digital evidence can be deleted or overwritten shortly after recording.

Contact a personal injury attorney as soon as you can to preserve relevant evidence for your personal injury claim.