Leucadia Law & Mediation

Surveillance Video

Most retail stores have closed circuit cameras to record surveillance video of activities that occur within the store.  In the days of VHS tapes, retailers would often have a Monday tape, and a Tuesday tape, and so on, so that every seven days they would put the tape back into the machine and erase the previous week’s footage.

Surprisingly, in the digital era many companies still erase footage that is more than a week old.  The statute of limitations in California for a claim based upon negligence is two years.  This means if you were injured inside of a California retail location, or outside on its premises, you have two years to file suit.  But you only have one week to notify the store of the incident, and to request that the store save its video from the incident.

While it may seem obvious that you should immediately report an incident to store personnel if you are injured in a store due to a slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall accident, many people at the time of the accident insist they are fine, only to later realize that their sore knee has torn ligaments, or their aching ankle has a torn tendon.  At the same time, you should request that any and all store video be retained (generally it can simply be burned onto a CD) pending the outcome of any insurance claim that you make.  Similarly, businesses in which an injury claim is made should prepare an incident report for every reported incident, and should have a policy in place to ensure that video is saved that corresponds to every reported incident.

I have a case right now where my client was wrongfully accused of shoplifting.  The retailer had at least five cameras in the store but kept the footage from only one camera.  The retailer retained one video since it decided to press charges with the authorities with respect to the alleged shoplifting and the one camera had the most footage of my client’s visit to the store.  However, there are several relevant activities that were presumably caught on video that we now have to piece together through testimony rather than being able to see them on tape:

1. My client set off the theft sensor when she entered the store; there is no footage of this.
2. My client set off the sensor as she exited the store; there is no footage to confirm whether she acknowledged a sales associate when leaving.
3. My client, who was five months pregnant at the time of the incident, is alleged to have suspiciously run to her car.  (As far as I know, the only thing a woman who is five months pregnant runs to is the bathroom.)  Predictably, there is no video of this “suspicious” behavior.

Whether you are a business or an individual claiming to have been injured on a business property, it is very important that the best evidence of the incident be preserved.  Businesses can only save what they are made aware of, so while the statute for filing a negligence lawsuit in California is two years, the earlier the claim is made directly with the business, the more likely that your best evidence will be preserved.  If you think you may have been injured on a business premises, advise the business’s management as soon as possible, and you may want to contact an attorney to preserve both your rights and your evidence.