A Personal Injury Lawyers Perspective - The Importance of Surveillance
Today marks the first time in my career that I had to seek instructions to withdraw a case on the basis that each party bears their own costs.
Why? Damaging surveillance.
In the eye of a Defendant lawyer, damaging surveillance can be the key to winning a case. In the eye of a Plaintiff lawyer, surveillance damaging or not, does not always depict the state of the individual’s injuries.
How many times have you had a sore limb and continued to use that sore limb because life requires it? Perhaps you had an intense workout and wake the next morning in excruciating pain, if you continue to work out the next day, does that mean you are not in pain? To an outsider, you are moving therefore, you are okay. To the injured individual, life and responsibilities cannot always stop because of your injury.
When I asked my client why they were able to move their limbs more in a surveillance video then at their medical examination, their answer was simple, “I am in pain but I have to move”.
So when a client who has an injured limb is walking with their toddler who has run off requiring you to run after them to prevent the child from running in the middle of the road, does that behavior mean you lied about your injuries because you were able to move more in the surveillance than in a medical examination?
In my opinion, surveillance should not make or break a case, it is the strength of the medical evidence at hand. However, in many cases, the unfortunate truth is that surveillance can severely damage a case. Good lawyers are required to advise accordingly, even when you don’t entirely agree.
What are your thoughts?
Belinda Nasr
16 June 2020
Neurosurgeon and Director, Precision Brain Spine & Pain, Precision Integrated Medical Specialists and Medicolegal Express
4 年I agree, Belinda. Video surveillance can be challenging to interpret, both as a treating doctor asked to provide a report, or an IME asked to review their opinion in light of such footage. Doctors often tell patients to “be active and try to live as normal a life as possible”. This is critical to their physical & mental well being. Patients follow this advice, are captured on video, and the difficulties you describe ensue. The problem with surveillance video is context. A snapshot of a few days or a wk of activity at some point in time (sometimes yrs ago) requires consideration of many factors, including: 1. What meds were taken at the time? Did they load up on pills to allow them to garden or play soccer with the kids? 2. What advice were they given by their clinicians? Were they simply following advice to do as much as they can? 3. Were they having a “good day” or a “good wk” in terms of pain & function. Most patients experience fluctuating pain levels which can lead to fluctuating levels of physical capacity. 4. What happened afterwards? Were they laid up in pain for hours or days? At Medicolegal Express, our specialists bring a considered, objective & clinically informed approach to the evaluation of surveillance footage.
Senior Associate at MinterEllison | Intellectual property and life sciences
4 年Interesting perspective! Thanks for sharing. Surely a judge would sympathetic towards a plaintiff when surveillance shows they are chasing after a toddler?