There is no
more profound way in which to demonstrate the plaintiff's
physical injury and actual damages than a Day-in-the-Life Video.
The primary
goal of a Day-in-the-Life Video is to accurately
record the injured plaintiff's activities of daily
living. This video focuses on a daily routine, that is,
an entire 8- to 11-hour day, which is then edited to a
20- or 30-minute tape.
You do not
need to be dealing with a catastrophic injury to consider
using a Day-in-the-Life Video. For instance, a
lawsuit may involve a person who now must live his or her
life being blind, deaf, or brain-damaged. The elements of
pain and suffering, mental anguish, future medical needs,
and loss of wages often are the most difficult aspects of
a case for a jury to visualize.
When you need
to preserve pain and suffering, when you need to preserve
mental anguish, and when you need to move quickly to
document that pain and suffering or mental anguish,
nothing compares in effectiveness to video. Video has far
more impact than a still photograph. It is a "living" form of documented evidence.
A Day-in-the-Life Video captures the quality of
life and how it has been affected by injury, illness,
and pain.
Day-in-the-Life
Videos also are invaluable because they
depict the
plaintiff's problems in his or her daily living
skills
demonstrate
the necessity of contemporaneous special care and
special equipment
demonstrate
the impact that the injury has on the plaintiff's
family members, including the hardship of additional
caretaking needs, and thus can assist in establishing
the loss of society claims
can be
used to reinforce the physical or occupational
therapist's testimony regarding the patient's goals
and future needs, thereby establishing Life Plan
arguments for future care. To show the future need for
therapy and how the person has improved with therapy,
a series of Day-in-the-Life Videos -- which
becomes a Progressive Video -- can be prepared
over a two- to four-year period. These tapes can be
edited into a 30-minute final video.
A Day-in-the-Life Video sometimes includes a
30-second lead-in -- using pre-existing video and still
photos transferred to video -- depicting the plaintiff in
a healthy, pre-injured, active state. The lead-in
reinforces how the plaintiff has been impacted as a
result of a traumatic injury and has a dramatic effect on
the viewer when compared to the plaintiff's daily
struggle. The use of this lead-in technique is
significant because viewers often erroneously conclude
that the video subject always has been limited in the
manner depicted. By visually and simultaneously
contrasting the plaintiff's prior active state to the
current condition, a major psychological impact is made
on the viewer.
What
Is Involved in Creating a Day-in-the-Life
Video?
Evidence
Video works with the appropriate parties to identify
the daily activities, possibly mapping out the daily
routing with a storyboard or chart of daily/nightly
activities.
After
meeting with the attorney, Evidence Video -- not the attorney or the paralegal -- works with
the injured party's family, caretakers, and therapists
to arrange for taping at all appropriate locales. A
daily routine is determined so that the taping will
fully and accurately reflect how the plaintiff's
injuries have affected the quality of his or her life.
The video will document the extent of care and
rehabilitation necessary to maintain even that reduced
quality of life.
Since the
video is considered attorney work product, other
pre-production tasks include reviewing the final
rundown of daily activities for approval by the
attorney to ensure that the daily activities are
portrayed accurately.
The taping
of the plaintiff's activities can take up to 8-10
hours. This requires the presence of the producer,
camera operator, and crew assistant. The attorney does
not need to be present during the taping.
After
taping is completed, the producer consults with the
attorney and then proceeds to edit the tape down to 30
minutes or so. All outtakes are preserved. The
attorney reviews the final edited video, and any
necessary changes are made within 24
hours.
Editing of
the video can take 6-8 hours.
A Day-in-the-Life Video can be created to
establish a day without editing the video and to
preserve the tape for future use.
