How to Analyze Security Footage After an Injury Accident in a Retail Store

After an injury accident in a retail store, all of the evidence you can gather to support your injury claim will be essential to helping you describe what happened and who is responsible for paying for your damages. Since most retail stores do have security surveillance, this may present an opportunity for you to review the footage and see if it could help support your claim. Reviewing security footage, though, is a bit more involved than just hitting play.

For help with a New Jersey or Pennsylvania personal injury claim, you can call our personal injury attorney at Monaco Law PC.

Reviewing Surveillance Footage to Assess Its Value

If the store has video footage of your accident, then what it shows can go a long way towards explaining what happened, who was involved, and if the store took reasonable precautions. It may take a bit of time to get surveillance footage from a store, especially if the store is reluctant to provide it to you. However, once you are successful in receiving it, you will want to thoroughly review it and scrutinize it, paying attention to key details.

Make sure to look for the following:

• Does the footage show that a clear hazard was present, which caused your injury accident? This could be like a wet floor, poor lighting, cluttered aisles, etc.)
• If there was a hazard, did anyone working in the store address the hazard in a prompt manner?
• How long did it take for the hazard to appear and for your injury accident to happen?
• Did an employee come to the accident scene? What did they do?
• Were warning signs present?
• What was the behavior of the individual who was hurt before the injury accident?

Remember to act quickly when attempting to recover surveillance footage. Many retail security systems will automatically overwrite footage after a certain period of time. A store may only keep footage for 24 to 72 hours, which is not long. Where a store makes it difficult for you to obtain the footage, make sure to put your request for the footage in writing and include that you would like the footage to be preserved.

Look at all the footage from the day of the accident. Usually, there are multiple cameras in a store that could provide various angles of your accident, ensuring you have the clearest picture of what occurred while also potentially providing valuable context.

You may have to watch the footage several times to pick up on details that matter to your case. This is true if the footage is clear. Where it is not or if there are gaps in coverage, this could potentially weaken your case. As a result, if you are not sure how to assess the footage to determine if it is valuable or harmful for your claim, then you should speak to an attorney who will be able to analyze it better and advise you on its merit.

Speak to a New Jersey and Pennsylvania Personal Injury Attorney Today

For help filing a New Jersey or Pennsylvania personal injury claim, please call our personal injury lawyer at Monaco Law PC at (609) 277-3166 for our New Jersey office and (215) 546-3166 for our Pennsylvania office to discuss your case today.

We are a New Jersey and Pennsylvania personal injury law firm serving Atlantic County, Bucks County,  Burlington County, Cape May County, Camden County, Chester County, Cumberland County, Delaware County, Gloucester County, Mercer County, Middlesex County, Monroe County, Montgomery County, Philadelphia, Ocean County, Salem County, Susquehanna County and all of New Jersey.

Source:

nj.gov/dep/opra/exemptions.html