How Video Surveillance Can Strengthen Your Premises Liability Case

Some of us are old enough to remember when surveillance tapes offered little more than grainy, jumpy, black-and-white footage that often raised more questions than it answered. Today, however, advancements in technology have ushered in a new era of surveillance footage that can capture an environment or interaction in clear and impressive detail.

In premises liability cases, video footage can be a vital piece of evidence because it often captures the conditions, behaviors, and/or oversights that may have contributed to an accident. Whether you sustained an injury inside a grocery store, in a dimly lit parking lot, or on a public sidewalk, surveillance footage of your accident may prove vital in your fight for accountability. Here’s a brief explanation of how video surveillance plays a role in premises liability cases and how an experienced premises liability lawyer can help you leverage this footage as you advocate for your rights.

What is premises liability?

Premises liability claims can arise when a person is injured because a property owner failed to maintain a reasonably safe environment for visitors. In North Carolina, this generally means that if you own, rent, or otherwise control a property, you have a duty to exercise reasonable care to mitigate harm and promptly address any hazards or dangerous conditions that could harm a guest, employee, customer, or other invited visitor to your space.

Premises liability cases often involve individuals suffering injuries as a result of safety hazards like:

• Wet or slippery floors
• Uneven walkways, cracked sidewalks, or damaged stairs
• Poor lighting in parking lots
• Insufficient security measures, such as security guards, floodlights, or alarms
• Falling merchandise
• Other unsafe building conditions

In a premises liability case, you need to prove that a property owner/operator was aware – or should have been aware – of a safety hazard and failed to address it or sufficiently warn visitors of its existence. If you can show that your injury was the direct result of a hazardous condition and that the owner of the involved property failed to take the appropriate steps to mitigate harm, you may have the basis for a premises liability claim.

The role of surveillance footage in premises liability cases

It can be hard to successfully argue for compensation in a premises liability case because you must be able to show that the property owner in question knew or should have known that a hazard existed in their space. Property owners and operators may claim that they had no prior knowledge of a safety hazard or potentially dangerous condition and subsequently cannot be held liable for any resulting damage.

Without hard evidence, this can easily devolve into a “he said, she said” argument, leaving injured accident victims without the funds they need to support their recovery. A well-placed camera, however, can shake up that dynamic. If surveillance footage shows that a safety hazard was present, that a property owner was aware of the hazard, and that they subsequently failed to correct or warn visitors about potential danger, conversations about fault can become more concrete.

For example, video evidence may show:

• Precisely how long a spill lingered on a commercial floor without being cleaned or cordoned off
• The exact moment a slip, trip, or fall occurred, as well as any contributing factors
• Employees repeatedly walking past a trip hazard and failing to address it
• Poor lighting conditions at the time of an accident
• The presence (or absence) of warning signs or barriers around a known safety hazard

Surveillance video can help fill in the gaps in witness testimony and provide a clear, real-time account of the events before, during, and immediately following an accident. This evidence can be particularly useful when it comes to establishing a timeline of how long a property owner knew or should have known that a hazard was threatening the safety of their visitors. Since eyewitness testimony alone is often less than reliable, surveillance footage can add a layer of credibility to a survivor’s claim and help prevent disputes over fault from escalating unnecessarily.

How to request surveillance footage in North Carolina

Surveillance footage collected on private property can be hard to track down and access in the aftermath of an accident. Even after identifying possible sources of footage, some Charlotte accident victims find themselves frustrated by the fact that property owners aren’t required to release surveillance footage simply because someone asks for it. If the owner of the footage does not want to provide it to an accident victim, they aren’t legally required to do so unless the claimant goes through the proper legal channels.

An experienced premises liability lawyer often plays a critical role in helping claimants access the recordings they need to help them build a case. Lawyers generally cannot compel production of surveillance footage until a lawsuit or formal legal proceeding is underway, though they may request that evidence be preserved before litigation begins. At this point, your lawyer can inform the other party of your intent to file a claim and ask that your requested footage be preserved.

Depending on how a claim progresses, surveillance footage may be requested or formally compelled at several stages of the legal process, including:

• During informal discussions prior to litigation
• During the required mediation period
• Via subpoena during the discovery process
• At the request of the court by way of a formal court order

If the business or property owner destroys or fails to preserve surveillance footage when they know litigation is reasonably anticipated, courts may impose sanctions for spoliation of evidence. An attorney can help streamline the evidence request process and run interference for you should the other party fail to provide the footage you need in a timely manner.

When to request surveillance footage

If you were injured on someone else’s property, you’ll want to move as quickly as possible to request any potentially relevant footage. Many modern surveillance video systems are cloud-based and don’t automatically save recordings indefinitely. Instead, footage may only be available for a limited window of time and subsequently become prone to deletion or overwriting. This means time is of the essence for anyone hoping to recover footage of their accident or its contributing factors.

To help cut back on the potential risk of your footage being destroyed, manipulated, or otherwise compromised prior to litigation, there are a few steps you should follow as soon as possible after an accident.

Step 1: Report the incident

As soon as you are physically able to do so, you should report your accident to the owner or manager of the property to begin creating a paper trail. While they may or may not do anything to support you after receiving this report, you will at least have a record of the accident and evidence that you gave them notice.

Step 2: Document camera locations

If possible, you or someone you trust should thoroughly check the scene of the accident for any cameras that may have captured your accident. You’ll want to make note of the location of these cameras so you can request footage from all necessary devices. Sometimes, cameras at a neighboring property will have captured a clear view of the accident site, so you’ll want to check the entire surrounding area to ensure you don’t miss any potential sources of evidence.

Step 3: Speak to a lawyer

Before communicating directly with the property owner or manager you wish to request footage from, it’s often wise to speak with a premises liability lawyer who can prevent you from making any inadvertent admissions of shared fault or otherwise compromising the viability of your claim. Your lawyer can serve as the go-between for you and the alleged at-fault party in your case and can send formal and accurate preservation requests to any party you suspect may have footage of your accident.

Keep in mind that North Carolina has one of the strictest contributory negligence rules in the country. Under this system, if the alleged at-fault party in your case can show that you contributed in some way to your own accident, you may be barred from recovering any compensation for your losses.

Final thoughts

Premises liability cases can be complex, but surveillance footage may provide critical evidence to support your claim. At Price, Petho & Associates, we understand the high-stakes nature of fighting for compensation after suffering an injury on someone else’s property. You expect people to do their due diligence in terms of properly maintaining their spaces, and you deserve a legal team that will work to hold negligent property owners accountable when they fail to perform their duty of care.

If you were injured on someone else’s property in Charlotte or the surrounding area, contact us to schedule a free consultation with a member of our team.