The world of personal injury law is often a high-stakes one, and if you sustained severe, catastrophic and life-changing injuries, the stakes are even higher due to the compensation amount you will need in order to take care of your medical, rehabilitation and daily living expenses which may sometimes run in the millions of dollars. Due to this, corporate entities that engaged in either negligent or egregious behavior such as those that push their semi-truck drivers to meet unreasonable quotas daily forcing them to drive aggressively thereby predisposing other road users to catastrophic accidents may attempt to obfuscate evidence to either lower their liability or squash it altogether. Robust evidence is the cornerstone of all personal injury claims, as this tells a story that is usually factual and unassailable, facts that cannot be explained away.

Together with a compelling legal narrative which ties your injuries, the defendant’s negligent actions, the evidence at hand and the damages you’re seeking, you’re able to recover compensation that can go a long way in ensuring that you live a close to normal life as possible. The most compelling evidence in auto accidents is usually found in what is called an Event Data Recorder, or EDR, which is usually within the onboard computer system and records even the slightest application of brakes or malfunction which could have led to your accident. In order to seek out and admit this evidence in a court of law or during discovery, one will need to produce a Subpoena Duces Tecum for Digital Evidence. In this article, we shall take a look at this vital procedural document as well as the digital DNA found in the EDR file that can show when, if or how the metadata was accessed and modified an effort to obscure liability – read on to find out more.

Our Attorneys Can Help with Your Case

Are you looking for an injury attorney? Please call us NOW at (314) 481-63338 to learn more about your legal options for justice and compensation. The experienced injury lawyers at McCready Law bring to the table over 90 YEARS of combined legal experience where we’ve helped tens of thousands of injured Americans from just about every state and every socioeconomic background recover compensation after getting injured due to the negligent actions of other individuals or large corporations. We pride ourself in our ability to net large settlements and judgments, and this is exemplified in the over $260 million we have recovered for our clients over the last couple decades.

Our massive and enviable success in the personal injury world can be attributed to a number of factors such as the fact that we personally handle all our claims as tenured attorneys and do not shunt them over to paralegals as is common in most law firms, something that usually jeopardizes claims.

We also work with a team of well-renowned experts in the medical, investigative, forensic, and accounting fields in order to come up with a case replete with objective evidence, medical rationale for your injuries tying them to the accident and the defendant’s negligence as well as quantifying your injuries by way of compensable damages to ensure you get the compensation you truly deserve. We run a bilingual firm (hablamos Español), and we have nationwide reach thanks to our vast and trusted network of referral attorneys. last but not least is the fact that we take on all cases on contingency fee basis, which simply means that there are ZERO UPFRONT FEES for the duration of the processing of your claim, as we only levy our fees at the end of the suit, and only if we’ve recovered compensation on your behalf. if you got injured and are looking for personal injury lawyers with trial experience, you’ve come to the right place – give us a call NOW at (314) 481-63338 to learn more about your legal options for justice and compensation: our intake team is standing by.

Preventing or Mitigating Spoilation of Evidence via a Subpoena Duces Tecum

A legal concept known as spoilation of evidence is usually intertwined with requests for EDR devices; this is because in some cases, the at-fault party or the corporate heads may instruct workers to negligently destroy, alter or fail to preserve evidence that is relevant to a legal proceeding. A spoilation claim can lead to the court granting an adverse interference instruction to the jury, which essentially means that the jury is asked to assume that the evidence destroyed would have been unfavorable to the spoliating party. This instruction is so powerful that you can have the case judged in your favor, even if the incriminating evidence is never found.

A Subpoena Duces Tecum is usually overseen by state and federal rules of civil procedure such as Federal Rule 45 and corresponding statutes. This is a formal and legally binding order commanding an entity or individual to produce documents, electronically stored information or anything else in their control or custody that is relevant to the case at hand.

How EDR Metadata May Help You Win Your Auto Accident Injury Lawsuit

In case the data in the EDR has been tampered with or altered, the metadata which is essentially digital breadcrumbs can be pieced together to tell a story that is undeniable.

Here is a list of some of the logs and metadata fields we shall compel:

1. Date and time of last access/download – If the date of the last download is after the date of collision, this may point to the alteration of data in an attempt to tamper with the evidence
2. User or technician identification – Modern EDR systems usually log the identification of the user or device that accessed the data; with this information, we shall determine if the download was performed by someone other than a crash reconstruction expert hired by us or a law enforcement official which may hint of a coverup; to this end, we shall ask for the identity of the person that accessed the data, their credentials and reason for their access.
3. Software version and diagnostic tool information – EDR data can only be accessed using specialized hardware and software. We shall ask that information regarding the name and version of the software be produced as well as the unique serial number. If we notice that the software version is older and less secure, or if the tool is an unauthorized, aftermarket device, this could point to an attempt to use a program that is less likely to leave a digital footprint, pointing to some kind of sabotage in an attempt to hide or erase evidence.

Nationwide Semi Truck Injury Lawyers – Call Us Today!

Filing a subpoena to compel the defense team to release this data or information has the unintended risk of raising the risk profile of your claim, morphing it from a simple negotiation to a multi-million-dollar lawsuit that can destroy a corporation’s reputation and so much more. In addition, the defendant is forced to make a choice, either produce the data which may be incriminating, or have the jury instructed to infer the evidence that was altered or deleted was unfavorable to them thereby providing your claim with unprecedented leverage.

If you were involved in a catastrophic auto accident and are looking to secure your claim, let us help you recover vital EDR data so we can create a compelling case on your behalf. Please call us NOW at (314) 481-63338 from anywhere in the country for your 100% FREE legal consultation. Thanks for choosing McCready Law, and we look forward to helping you.