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By Allen Shinder
A video is a versatile tool for the personal injury lawyer. It can begin with a day in the life video. This video portrays the injured person’s daily routine. It demonstrates the struggles the injured victim must deal with doing common every day activities from the time they get up in the morning until they go to sleep at night.
The day in the life video is critical to creating empathy for your injured client. It can be used by itself, or it can be edited into a longer video settlement brochure. Usually, we shoot the day in the life early, well in advance of settlement negotiations. We use it as evidence of the injuries sustained and their impact during recovery. Many times, years pass from the time the injury occurs to the time the case gets to court. During that time, the injured party may recover and appear healthy at trial. The video is used to show their struggle to recover.
We try to either have the victim tell us what they are doing while they are doing it. Or we use a voiceover to describe what the person is doing. If the case gets to trial, we strip the sound off the video and have either an expert witness or the injured client explain what they are doing in the video.
3 Kinds of Litigation Videos
The 3 video types of video are very similar. The day in the life video is the most unique. The video settlement brochure is a documentary that presents all of the essential evidence to prove your case. This may include a day in the life video, a depiction of what happened to cause the injuries, the negligence of the other side, photos of the vehicles or machinery involved, additional videos, medical records, excerpts of depositions, witness testimony, zoom recordings, damages, a demand, and more.
Finally, we have the video documentary which is broader than the day in the life video but less broad in scope than the video settlement brochure. I consider it a more condensed version of the video settlement brochure. It’s more focused on some of the critical issues of the case.
Multiple Uses of Video in the Litigation Process
Depending on the details of the case, we can use the video throughout the litigation process. We can use these videos in the early stages of preparing our case. For example, if we have a day in the life video we may use it with witnesses in prepping them for their depositions. We can then use them in settlement negotiations, where we might want to show the other side the strength of our witnesses or show them things they would not want a judge or jury to see.
And finally, we can use them again in trial. With each use, they become an important tool in convincing the mediator, the judge, the jury and most importantly the other side, of the strength of your case.
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