Relevant evidence offers the best proof of the opposing party’s negligence. Without proof of negligence, a plaintiff would not be able to win the case.
Physical evidence
• A weapon
• Damaged clothing or preserved footwear
• Videotape footage
• Signed statements from witnesses
• Tools or equipment: Those could be present at location of a falling or tripping incident.
Possible objects in pictured evidence
• Skid marks
• A broken railing on a staircase
• A torn rug on a staircase
• A stairway that lacked any railing
• Broken glass
• Fast food containers on car seat
• An open pocketbook on car seat
• A damaged vehicle
• A sign on a roadway where the writing has been obscured, or one that was dimly lit at night
• A picture of an object that has been stolen
Documents
• Medical report
• Insurance forms
• Medical bills
• Incident report or police report
• Proof of loss of wages or loss of earnings
• Receipts for repair work
• Bill of sale for lost property, or property that could not be repaired
• Listing of calls made from defendant’s cell phone
• A log for a truck driver
Possible methods for preservation of evidence
Personal Injury Lawyer in Ottawa knows that you can use jump or flash drive to preserve video footage of photographs. Be sure that each photograph has a date for when it was taken. Put physical evidence in a secure location; that could be a lawyer’s office.
Not every personal injury case would require collection of all the evidence that has been listed above. The nature of the reported injury would determine the relevance of any evidentiary materials.
For instance, someone that had been injured by tripping on a raised sidewalk would not need a log for a truck driver. Yet the same accident victim would need the preserved footwear. Video footage would be most useful, if the injured victim had been the target of a hit-and-run incident. The victim might want to post the footage on the Internet, in hopes of obtaining helpful statements from a witness.
Pictures taken inside of a home could be shown to an insurance company after a fire, in order to support the claimed value of the homeowner’s loss. By the same token, pictures of accessories that had been added to an automobile could be used to show the true value of a totaled vehicle, following an accident.
In other words, not all evidence gets displayed in a courtroom. Some item might be used to counter an argument from the adjuster, or to strengthen an argument that the adjuster has viewed as weak.
Furthermore, some of the items on the above listing could never be used in a courtroom. The police report is one such item. A judge would declare it to be hearsay, something that jurors should not see.
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