Knowing why car accident evidence disappears, and how to preserve it, is the first step in protecting your rights. Weather conditions can wash away tire marks and debris, surveillance systems automatically delete or overwrite footage after set periods, and witnesses may become unreliable or unavailable over time. When crucial evidence from your Chicago car accident case vanishes, it can undermine your claim and affect your compensation. While you focus on recovering from your injuries and managing medical treatment, a car accident lawyer can employ legal tools to preserve this essential evidence before it’s lost forever. Acting swiftly to protect evidence creates a strong foundation for your case and could significantly impact your outcome.
The Chicago car accident lawyers at Lloyd Miller Law can gather and preserve the evidence you need to build a strong case and recover maximum compensation. Call 773-838-8100 for a free consultation.
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Common Reasons Critical Car Accident Evidence Is Lost or Destroyed in Chicago
There are multiple reasons why car accident evidence disappears soon after an accident. The most common ones include:
Weather and Other Environmental Conditions
Weather and other environmental factors can quickly destroy physical evidence at a crash scene. Rain, which comes in at a rate of around 39.04 inches per year in Chicago, can wash away skid marks within hours. Weather conditions can also sweep away car parts, glass, and other debris. Heavy Chicago traffic can also obscure skid marks and debris.
Cleanup Operations
After a crash victim leaves the accident scene, vehicles can be moved around and the debris cleaned up. Road maintenance crew could modify construction zones or repair potholes. Elements that could offer insight into the dynamics of an accident, such as the distribution of debris, positioning of the cars, and road conditions, could be lost.
Automatic Overwrite and Deletion Cycles
Continuous overwriting and deletion cycles are common reasons why accident evidence disappears. Surveillance video footage, black box data, and other critical digital records are usually recorded over or erased after a certain period. Depending on the specific system used or policies of the entity that operates it, the period can range from days to weeks or months. Cellphone records that could prove the other driver was using their phone at the time of the crash could be deleted.
Witness Unreliability or Unavailability
Witnesses’ memories of the accident can fade, and their testimonies can change over time, causing their version of events to become less reliable. As time passes, it may become increasingly difficult to find witnesses. The initial willingness of a witness to help could also drop.
Why You Should Secure and Preserve Evidence After a Crash
Evidence won’t last forever. You should preserve car accident evidence for the following reasons:
Establishing Fault
Illinois is an at-fault state, so the driver primarily responsible for an accident is held accountable for the damages suffered. As a result, the clear answer to “Is an uninsured driver automatically at fault in Illinois?” is “no.” Photographs, video footage, police reports, and witness statements are useful for proving fault. Collecting and preserving such evidence is crucial, as it could come to your rescue if liability is disputed, and you need to prove the other party’s fault.
If you didn’t document everything at the scene, you can still gather critical evidence afterward. Return to the accident location to photograph skid marks, traffic signs, road conditions, and damage patterns before they disappear. Contact the police department to obtain a copy of the official accident report. Reach out to witnesses whose information you collected, or canvass the area for additional witnesses who may have seen the crash. Identify nearby businesses, traffic cameras, or residential security systems that could have captured footage. Surveillance video footage is critical in many crashes, including those involving right of way and fault in parking lot accidents.
Maximizing Compensation
Strong, well-preserved evidence demonstrates the full scope of the damages incurred, maximizing your compensation. Well-documented evidence strengthens your negotiating position during settlement discussions. If your case proceeds to trial, it could lead to a considerably high verdict amount.
Therefore, it’s crucial to seek medical attention immediately and follow through on recommended treatments to ensure your injuries are documented. Keep all receipts, medical bills, prescriptions, and any other documentation of your treatments and expenses to show the financial and non-financial harm you suffered due to the accident. Keeping a detailed journal of the impact of the injuries sustained on your daily life strengthens your claim for non-economic damages.
Protecting Yourself Against Insurance Companies
Soon after an accident, the other driver’s insurance company will be looking to build a case that works against you and reduces its liability. That could involve gathering evidence that supports its position and removing or ignoring evidence that could harm it. Defendants could also legally destroy evidence in their control if you don’t take the necessary steps to ensure it’s preserved.
If evidence is lost, destroyed, or not preserved, you won’t be able to shut down the other side’s arguments or tell your side of the story convincingly. The other driver and his or her insurance company may take full advantage and challenge your credibility, assign you a higher fault percentage, and even deny your claim. The courts could entirely dismiss your case.
It’s crucial to have a car accident lawyer on your side who’ll look out for your best interests from the very beginning and help you preserve evidence to support your claim.
How a Car Accident Lawyer Helps Protect Evidence
When you contact a car accident lawyer, the lawyer will conduct thorough investigations to gather all the necessary evidence. Insurance companies aren’t on your side, so you shouldn’t rely on their investigations. That’s also why you should think twice before giving a recorded statement to insurance adjusters. An insurer’s team of investigators and lawyers will be looking to build a case in the insurer’s favor.
Your lawyer may work with professional investigators to document the accident scene before the evidence disappears. He or she will identify sources of surveillance footage, such as cameras at nearby businesses, residences, vehicles, or traffic lights. Your lawyer will send a preservation letter to all the parties with possible evidence as early as possible to prevent deletion. Once received, the parties will have a duty to preserve this evidence.
The types of evidence that your lawyer could request preservation of include:
- Surveillance footage and photos
- Dash cam footage
- Emails and text messages
- Inspection and maintenance records
- Black box information
- Business records
Some parties may be reluctant to turn over key evidence. Your car accident attorney will issue legal subpoenas to obtain such evidence, which may be unavailable to unrepresented accident victims.
Your car accident attorney will also work quickly to identify and interview witnesses and record their statements while their memories of the incident are still fresh. The attorney will reach out to the witnesses whose contact details you may have collected at the crash scene. Car accident attorneys could also use police reports or 911 records to track down and interview additional witnesses.
Your car accident lawyer will consult experts like accident reconstruction specialists to ensure nothing is overlooked. After collecting and analyzing evidence, a lawyer will ensure all proof is authenticated, properly documented, and preserved.
The sooner you start working with a car accident lawyer, the easier it will be for your lawyer to gather and preserve evidence. At Lloyd Miller Law, we act quickly to protect your interests and ensure no critical evidence is lost while you focus on recovery. Contact us today so we can start obtaining and preserving evidence of your accident.
