Legal Lens Blog

While working as a union shop steward at a construction site in Manhattan, Edward Callegari found himself in an altercation with Drew Rose, a Trucker who was employed by the general contractor at the construction site, Davis & Partners, LLC. This altercation resulted in Rose stabbing Callegari several times. These injuries, puncture wounds to his diaphragm and spleen, became compounded by other injury induced medical issues which left Callegari in a coma for several weeks.

After a long recovery, Callegari was left with almost $600,000 in medical expenses. He sued Davis & Partners, LLC. for negligence in its supervision of their employee, Rose. This case resulted in $4.3 million awarded to the plaintiff, Edward Callegari,  for the injuries he had sustained.

In cases like this one, photo and video evidence of the victim’s injuries are very valuable to presenting a strong case to the jury. Without it everything is left to expert and witness testimony, which is also necessary to presenting a solid case, but can be greatly aided by the accompaniment high quality photo and video evidence of the victim’s injuries.

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More and more asbestos claims have been found to be fraudulent. If you have a legitimate claim make sure you have a professional document the effected area. If you do not have high quality evidence to show a jury that your client did have some exposure to asbestos, you could end up looking like these attorneys bringing erroneous claims to court against large companies. Read More Here.

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Pit Bulls attacked several people in Long Island, resulting in severe injuries. These bites sometimes require surgery and could leave the victim with extremely high medical expenses. If the injuries have been well documented with proper photo and video evidence, these cases can result in large settlements being awarded to the victim.

“In cases involving negligent dog owners, injured victims can seek compensation for the significant losses they have sustained. Dog owners have a responsibility to keep their pets restrained.”  Kenneth A. Wilhelm – Personal Injury Attorney

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Shooting video that is to be presented in court is a little bit more difficult than shooting photos. This is because while the video is being shot there is a possibility of inadvertently capturing something that could have a negative effect on your case. Here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind when shooting video.

1. If audio is unnecessary, keep it to a very minimal or none at all.
2.  Instead of shooting one long video, break it into two or three shorter videos (when possible). You will still convey the same information, but with more control over what the viewer is seeing.
3. Always make sure you have a adequate light source. Video is of no use if it is even slightly difficult to make out what the subject is.
4. Make sure the space that you are shooting in has nothing incriminating that will appear in the shot. Such as drug paraphernalia, cigarettes, alcohol, inappropriate images, or anything else of this nature. These types of things can hurt a case severely. Always be aware of your surroundings.
5.  If it is unnecessary for the subject to speak, do not allow them to speak during the video.
6. It is absolutely necessary, when you are creating a video of a person, to show their face at least once over the course of each video. It is easy to forget this when you are focused on an injury or something of that nature.
7. When shooting a space or area where an event occurred, be aware of the space and try not to include people in your shots. Also, refer to No. 4.
8.  The use of scale aids, such as a ruler, are always helpful, but must be held directly to what they are measuring. If not held directly to the subject they may be misleading.

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Even though we are (typically) photographers with no formal training in law, it is crucial to the relevance of our pictures to thoroughly understand the incident or the story we are illustrating. Speaking with your clients, whether they be the attorney, plaintiff, witness, or defendant, and formulating the events in question in your head is your number one priority before you snap that first picture. Having a structure for your shoot in mind before you start will ensure that nothing is missed and everything is adequately covered.

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When images are presented in court as evidence it is extremely important that they are an accurate representation of what the witness is testifying to. They must also be the highest quality possible so that no questions can be raised as to the subject matter. Here are some general guidelines for photographing for court.

Lighting

Lots and lots of light is essential to great photos. Light is what everything else in this article depends on, so make sure you are equipped with a high output flash. Most professional flashes have an adjustable flash head which can be used to change the angle of the light emitted when the flash is fired. It is important to utilize this feature when shooting a subject. Showing multiple images of a subject with different light sources can often give the viewer a better understanding of the subject.

White Balance

Though light is important, representing accurate colors comes in at a close second. Most photographers leave the color processing up to their cameras by selecting the “flash” setting or (by far the worst) “auto” setting on their camera’s white balance selection. This seems like the simple solution, but in reality it will not produce the desired color accuracy. Most professional cameras come with a “custom” white balance selection. With this selected you take a picture of something white in the space you are shooting (with your flash on!) and select that image as the white balance sample. After that all the images you shoot will have colors accurate to that space. Be sure to do this every time you change the space you are shooting in.

Aperture and Depth of Field

This is where all that light comes into play. When you are shooting, you want to have as much detail as possible. In order to achieve this you need a very small aperture on your lens. Smaller apertures require more light, since less light is being allowed to pass through the lens to the sensor. The higher the f-stop the smaller the aperture. It is ideal to keep the aperture between f5.6 and f11 at all times throughout your shoot. This will allow of the optimal depth of field. Depth of field or DOF is referring to the amount of the image that is in focus when the picture is shot. A larger DOF will have more detail and more of the image in focus, this is what higher f-stops allow.

I hope this article was helpful, but sometimes this kinda thing can be a little overwhelming, so leave it to the professionals at Legal Lens Photography.

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