The defense hired a private investigator to tail my client.

They wanted him to get secret surveillance video of my client doing something she claimed she couldn't do.

For two solid days, this private investigator stalked my client in a van, taking hidden camera video. They got her on video walking out of her house and into her car. They followed her car to her work. They got her on video leaving her car in the parking lot and entering her workplace.

Then, in the evening, they caught her on video doing the reverse.

They followed her movements from the moment she left her work and walked to her car. They followed her car to pick up her kids from school. They tracked her driving her kids home and walking into her house.

The next day they got her taking the trash out and returning inside.

They showed this video to the jury at trial. They used it to show my client didn't have a limp. They showed she could walk. They showed she didn't need a cane or crutch to help her walk. They thought they had her...

Here was the problem with their thinking...

  1. My client never said she couldn't walk.
  2. She never said she had a limp. Shortly after her injury, while recuperating, she needed a cane to help her get around, but over a period of weeks, months and years, she no longer needed a cane.
  3. The surveillance video failed to capture video during the most critical times of the day...when she walked into the house after a long day of work on her feet.
  4. The video failed to see her taking off her shoes and seeing her massively swollen foot.
  5. The video failed to see her taking over the counter and prescription pain medications to reduce the extreme pain she had at the end of every workday.
  6. She never said she couldn't drive or take out the trash.

The jury saw that they had nothing on her and there was nothing in the video that contradicted anything my client said she couldn't do.

There was one other key thing that contributed signficantly to my client being awarded $1.55 million dollars in Westchester County. Want to know what it was?

I caught the defense expert in a lie.

I asked the expert where were his notes and cover letter that the defense attorney sent to him along with the medical records to review in this case. The doctor said he left them in his office. In fact, they were sitting on his desk in his office where he left them just the night before.

The doctor refused to acknoweldge that if he brought those notes with him, I'd be able to see them. He finally admitted that he was fully aware that's what happens if he brings his notes to court.

I then said that during the next break, I wanted him to call his office and have his secretary fax to the court the cover letter the attorney sent him.

"Oh, I just remembered...it's not on my desk, it's in my trunk in my car in the parking garage at work," he answered.

"Great," I said. "Have your secretary go to your car and fax us the letter right now."

"Oh, I forgot. It's not there, it's at home," the defense expert replied.

It was obvious to everyone in the courtroom that this expert lied. Not once, not twice, but three times.

That changed everything.

To learn even more about surveillance video, I invite you to watch the video below...

 

 

Gerry Oginski
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NY Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Trial Lawyer