Documenting the Injury Scene

If you have been injured, it is important to document the scene of your injury and preserve the evidence for later – even if there are eye witnesses.

The Imperfection of Eye Witness Testimony

While it is true that eyewitness testimony is some of the most impactful at trial, it is also considered one of the most unreliable forms of testimony.  One reason for this, according to a recent peer-reviewed article published on the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s website (part of the United States National Library of Medicine) is that memory is a reconstructive process.  When a person is asked to recall a memory and the reconstructive process is put into effect, it is susceptible to distortion.

The imperfection of memory has been known for a long time.  In 1885, a German psychologist named Herman Ebbinghaus found what is now known as the “Forgetting Curve.”  This curve illustrates how much of an event someone was able to recall after the passage of time.  It showed that as the passage of time after an event increases, your memory becomes less accurate.

This is not to say everything someone may recall when asked months or years later in court is inaccurate.  However, there is a good chance at least some portion of it will be inaccurate.  As a result, you need to be proactive in documenting your injury scene if you can do so safely.

How to Document the Injury Scene

Take photographs or videos of the scene and of your injuries.  If you have been injured in a slip and fall or trip and fall, be sure to take several photographs of the cause of your trip or slip from various angles and distances.  If you were injured in a car accident or motorcycle accident, try to take photographs of any skid marks or debris on the roadway – if you can do so safely.  Also locate witnesses and take down their names, addresses and phone numbers.  If you are unable to do this, ask someone else do it.

There is nothing wrong with you protecting yourself from the inevitable combination of memory loss of the event and the wrongdoer denying responsibility.  Defense attorneys and insurance companies use photographs and videos all the time for this exact reason.  In fact, they even attack an injury victim’s credibility when their memory does not match up exactly with what the photos or videos show.

If you have been injured because someone else was negligent, it can be a frustrating experience.  It can be even more frustrating down the road when there are no pictures or photographs of the scene, substance or how the incident occurred and the only witnesses are you and the at-fault party and their witnesses who will all say they did nothing wrong.  Protect yourself and document the scene and turning them over to your attorney.  We are here to fight for you and these items can be very helpful to our investigation of the case.