The moment you get into an accident, the clock starts ticking. It’s not just about West Virginia’s two-year statute of limitations; it’s about getting to the doctor, getting to the mechanic, and filing your insurance claim. The outcome of that claim will depend on something else that’s time-sensitive: key evidence.
Most car accidents boil down to your version and the other driver’s version, with nobody willing to say, “It was totally my fault.” The only way to truly determine fault is with strong and convincing evidence. Unfortunately, that evidence can sometimes disappear, and that can work against your version of what happened.
It’s understandable if you’re feeling overwhelmed after a car accident. There’s a lot to deal with, which is why you need to speak with an experienced Charleston car accident attorney. A skilled attorney can help you gather the right evidence to support your claim. More importantly, they can act swiftly to help preserve any evidence that might get lost. That will be make or break for your claim.
Types of Crucial Evidence That Often Go Missing in Charleston Crashes
Police detectives know that the first 48 hours after a crime are the most crucial for finding a suspect and closing the case. That countdown can apply to evidence after a car accident.
Here’s what you might lose in the days after a car accident:
Accident Scene Evidence
Skid marks begin fading almost immediately, especially if there is rain or heavy traffic. Road crews could sweep away all the broken glass and random car parts. If you didn’t take any photos or video of the scene, it can impact how you corroborate what happened.
Witnesses
A random pedestrian or passing motorist can become harder to locate as time passes. Even if you do catch up with them days or weeks later, their memories start becoming less reliable.
Surveillance Footage
There could be a lot of cameras that captured your accident. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the owners of those cameras are under no obligation to provide that footage, let alone keep it. Footage from city traffic cameras gets routinely overwritten. Doorbell camera footage is often overwritten automatically unless someone saves it. Your attorney can step in and compel the owners of that footage to share it.
Electronic Data
Most new cars have a version of a “black box” that can provide details of how the car was operating in the moments leading up to the crash. That is especially true for commercial vehicles, which are required by law to maintain electronic data. If you get into a Charleston truck accident, you might need to obtain that electronic data from the trucking company. That is another task that your attorney can help with.
How a Spoliation Letter Protects Your Legal Rights in West Virginia
There is a risk of spoliation with any piece of evidence associated with your car accident. Spoliation is a legal term that essentially means “throw away or ruin” anything that a person or company has a duty to save.
Your attorney can quickly send out a spoliation letter to anyone who might have access to vital evidence. Often a spoliation letter is issued when a lawsuit is pending, but it can also go out during the initial insurance claims process.
What happens if the evidence is destroyed or goes missing after a spoliation letter has been issued? It won’t be good for the party who was supposed to preserve that evidence. A judge can impose sanctions and instruct the jury that it may infer the missing evidence would have been unfavorable to the party that destroyed it.
West Virginia goes further than many states. If a third party destroyed evidence it had a duty to preserve, or if anyone destroyed it intentionally, you may be able to bring a separate spoliation claim for damages on top of your underlying case. When a party to the lawsuit merely loses evidence through carelessness, the remedy is sanctions and the adverse inference instead.
How an Experienced Attorney Recovers Lost Evidence
If evidence is lost after a car accident, there might be steps that a skillful attorney can take to recover what has gone missing. As mentioned, a spoliation letter sets the marker that from that moment forward, evidence can’t be destroyed. If it was wiped, an attorney might be able to subpoena the digital footprint. You could find deleted emails, text logs, and surveillance footage on server backups or cloud logs.
An experienced attorney will also have access to a reconstruction expert who can utilize the available evidence to create a visual reconstruction of the accident. That can be a valuable asset to support your claim.
Forbes Law Office Moves Fast on Evidence
The attorneys at the Forbes Law Offices, PLLC know all about the value of strong evidence. We also understand how vital it is to lock down that evidence as soon as possible to help our clients prevail in their claims. We want to help make the process of recovering damages go as smoothly as possible. Once we come into the case, we’ll put a plan into action to secure the evidence and build that claim.
If you’ve been involved in a serious car accident, you can call the Forbes Law Offices for a free consultation. We’ll answer your questions and discuss what evidence you need to prove your claim. Remember, the clock is ticking.
