What Evidence Matters Most in a Wrongful Death Lawsuit?
When a loved one dies because of another person’s negligence or wrongful conduct, the surviving family may have the right to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit. In California, Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 permits specified surviving family members and other qualifying individuals to bring a wrongful death claim based on the wrongful act or neglect that caused the death.
But establishing responsibility in a wrongful death case requires more than demonstrating that a fatal accident occurred. The evidence must help establish what happened, what caused the accident, who was responsible, and the losses suffered by the surviving family members. In cases involving a fatal car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, or other traffic accident, important evidence can come from many different sources.
Kalfayan Merjanian, LLP represents families pursuing California wrongful death claims and understands the importance of promptly identifying and preserving evidence. Video footage, event data recorder information, cell phone records, eyewitness accounts, physical evidence, and accident reconstruction can each provide important pieces of the factual picture.
What Evidence Can Establish How the Fatal Accident Happened?
Wrongful death cases arising from accidents often involve a basic factual question that can be difficult to answer: What actually happened immediately before the collision?
The deceased person may not have been able to explain what occurred before they died. Other drivers may have conflicting recollections. A witness may have seen only part of the accident. And physical evidence can change or disappear quickly.
That makes contemporaneous evidence particularly important. The strongest factual picture may emerge when several independent sources point to the same sequence of events.
For example, a video recording might show a vehicle entering an intersection against a red light. An event data recorder might show the vehicle’s speed and braking activity immediately before the collision. A witness might confirm that the driver did not appear to slow down. Skid marks and vehicle damage might provide additional information about the vehicles’ movements.
Each piece of evidence can potentially help corroborate the others.
Can Video Footage Help Prove Wrongful Death?
Video can be among the most useful evidence in an accident case because it may provide a contemporaneous visual record of what occurred.
Depending on the location and circumstances, potentially relevant footage may come from traffic cameras, surveillance systems at businesses or residences, dashcams, doorbell cameras, security systems, buses, nearby vehicles, or other recording devices.
A recording might help establish the direction and speed of vehicles, traffic signal status, lane positions, following distance, whether a driver appeared to brake, and what happened immediately before impact.
Video can also help identify issues that might otherwise depend heavily on witness recollection. A witness may remember seeing a collision but not accurately recall the precise position of each vehicle several seconds beforehand. A recording may provide additional information.
However, video evidence is not necessarily complete. A camera may not capture the entire intersection, may have an obstructed view, or may record at an angle that makes distances and speeds difficult to determine. The timing and authenticity of footage may also need to be established.
For that reason, video is often most useful when considered alongside other evidence rather than in isolation.
What Is an Event Data Recorder?
Many modern vehicles contain an event data recorder, commonly referred to as an EDR or “black box.” Depending on the vehicle and system, an EDR can record information associated with a collision, such as vehicle speed, braking, acceleration, seat belt status, and other crash-related data.
California Vehicle Code section 9951 regulates access to information recorded by certain vehicle recording devices. Among other things, the statute generally restricts retrieval of covered data by persons other than the registered owner unless one of the statutory circumstances permitting retrieval applies, including consent or a court order.
California courts have recognized that EDR information can be relevant evidence in a judicial proceeding. In People v. Ferguson, for example, the Court of Appeal considered EDR evidence concerning a vehicle’s acceleration and speed before a collision and rejected an argument that Vehicle Code section 9951 prohibited the use of the information in court.
In a wrongful death case, EDR information can potentially help answer questions about what a vehicle was doing immediately before impact. It may provide information that can be compared with photographs, witness accounts, police evidence, and accident reconstruction.
Because the information can be associated with the vehicle involved in the collision, preserving the vehicle can also be important. A totaled vehicle may be sold, repaired, dismantled, or otherwise altered, potentially affecting access to relevant physical and electronic evidence.
Can Cell Phone Records Show Whether a Driver Was Distracted?
Cell phone evidence may become important when distracted driving is suspected.
A driver who was texting, making a call, interacting with an application, or otherwise using a phone immediately before a fatal collision may leave an electronic record of that activity. Depending on the circumstances, relevant information may include call records, text messages, application activity, and other electronically stored information.
Obtaining this information can involve privacy considerations and legal discovery procedures. California’s Civil Discovery Act permits parties to seek electronically stored information through discovery, subject to the applicable requirements and protections.
Phone records do not automatically establish that a driver was distracted at the exact moment of a collision. A record showing that a communication occurred at a particular time may need to be compared with the accident timeline and other evidence.
That distinction matters. The relevant question is not simply whether a driver used a phone that day, but whether the evidence can establish that the driver’s phone use was occurring in a manner that contributed to the fatal accident.
How Important Are Eyewitnesses?
Eyewitness testimony can provide information that is unavailable from physical evidence or electronic records.
A person standing near an intersection, walking along a sidewalk, driving behind the vehicles, or sitting in another vehicle may have observed events immediately before the collision. Witnesses may describe vehicle speeds, traffic signals, lane changes, driver behavior, road conditions, or other circumstances.
Witness statements are especially useful when obtained while memories are still relatively fresh. Investigators may also need to identify witnesses who were not interviewed at the accident scene.
At the same time, eyewitness testimony has limitations. People can perceive the same event differently, and the stress and speed of a serious collision can affect memory. A witness’s location, viewing angle, distance from the accident, and ability to observe the relevant events all matter.
A careful investigation therefore examines what a witness could actually have seen rather than treating a witness account as conclusive simply because someone was present.
What Can Accident Reconstruction Reveal?
Accident reconstruction can bring different pieces of evidence together to analyze how a collision occurred.
An accident reconstruction expert may examine photographs, vehicle damage, EDR data, roadway measurements, skid marks, debris patterns, surveillance footage, witness statements, vehicle weights, vehicle specifications, and other information.
The analysis may address issues such as vehicle speeds, directions of travel, points of impact, reaction times, braking, visibility, stopping distances, and the sequence of collisions.
For example, a fatal crash may initially appear to involve a simple rear-end collision. A reconstruction may reveal that another vehicle changed lanes immediately beforehand, that a driver failed to brake, or that a particular vehicle was traveling at a materially different speed than reported.
Accident reconstruction does not replace the underlying evidence. Its value comes from analyzing that evidence and explaining how the physical facts support a particular reconstruction of the accident.
What Physical Evidence Should Be Examined?
The vehicles themselves can contain important evidence.
Photographs and physical inspections may document crush patterns, vehicle damage, broken components, tire condition, lighting systems, restraint systems, and other characteristics relevant to the collision. The roadway may also contain evidence such as skid marks, gouge marks, debris, tire marks, damaged signs or barriers, and other indications of vehicle movement.
The location of the vehicles after the collision can also provide information, although post-impact vehicle positions may be affected by emergency responders, subsequent impacts, or efforts to clear the roadway.
Physical evidence can be particularly valuable when it corroborates or contradicts accounts given by the drivers involved.
What Do Police Reports and 911 Records Show?
Law enforcement evidence can provide an important early record of the accident.
Depending on the circumstances, investigators may document the accident scene, photograph vehicles and roadway conditions, interview witnesses, prepare diagrams, record measurements, and identify potential causes of the collision. Dispatch records and 911 calls may also establish when emergency personnel were contacted and what was reported immediately after the accident.
A police report is not necessarily the final word on liability. An initial investigation may be conducted before all available evidence has been located or before a complete reconstruction is possible.
Additional evidence obtained during a civil investigation can therefore become important even when a police report initially assigns responsibility or reaches a particular conclusion.
Can Maintenance and Employment Records Matter?
In some wrongful death cases, the person who directly caused the accident might not be the only potentially responsible party.
For example, if a commercial truck crashes because of a maintenance problem, records concerning inspections, repairs, maintenance schedules, and prior complaints may become relevant. If an employer’s conduct is at issue, employment records, driver qualification materials, training records, work schedules, and other company documents may provide information about the circumstances surrounding the accident.
The same principle can apply to dangerous roadway conditions, defective vehicle components, negligent security, or other circumstances contributing to a death.
The evidence needed depends heavily on the type of accident and the theories of liability involved.
How Can Evidence Establish Negligence?
California wrongful death cases generally require evidence supporting the elements of the claim, including the wrongful act or neglect that caused the death.
The evidence may therefore need to establish more than the fact that a defendant’s vehicle struck the decedent’s vehicle. It may need to connect the defendant’s conduct to the collision and the resulting death.
Consider a hypothetical intersection collision. Video may show that a driver entered the intersection against a red light. EDR data may show that the driver was traveling at a particular speed and did not apply the brakes before impact. Witness testimony may establish that the traffic signal had been red for the driver. Accident reconstruction may then analyze the timing, vehicle movements, and point of impact.
The individual pieces of evidence become more meaningful when they form a consistent factual sequence.
What Evidence Shows the Family’s Losses?
Evidence in a wrongful death lawsuit is not limited to determining how the person died. A claim may also require evidence concerning the losses experienced by surviving family members.
Depending on the circumstances and applicable California law, documentation may include the decedent’s employment and income history, benefits, household contributions, financial records, and evidence concerning the relationship between the decedent and surviving family members.
Evidence concerning the relationship itself can also matter. Family members may provide testimony concerning the decedent’s role in the household, the nature of the relationship, and the ways the death affected them.
The applicable damages depend on the particular claim and the governing California statutes and case law. The evidence should therefore be developed with the specific wrongful death claims being pursued in mind.
Why Does Evidence Need to Be Preserved Quickly?
Some evidence can disappear before a family even knows that it may be important.
Surveillance systems may automatically overwrite recordings. Vehicles may be repaired, sold, or destroyed. Electronic data may be lost or altered. Physical conditions at an accident scene can change. Witness memories can become less precise over time.
California’s discovery rules recognize electronically stored information as a category of discoverable material, and California law addresses preservation obligations concerning electronically stored information.
Prompt investigation can therefore be particularly important in a wrongful death case. A lawyer may need to identify potentially relevant evidence, notify responsible parties that evidence should be preserved, obtain records through appropriate procedures, inspect vehicles, locate witnesses, and determine whether expert analysis is necessary.
The goal is not simply to collect as much evidence as possible. It is to identify the evidence that can answer the important factual and legal questions in the case and preserve it before it disappears.
How Does the Evidence Fit Together in a California Wrongful Death Case?
There is rarely one universal piece of evidence that matters most in every wrongful death lawsuit.
A fatal crash involving a commercial truck may depend heavily on driver logs, vehicle data, maintenance records, and reconstruction evidence. A pedestrian death may involve surveillance video, traffic signal information, visibility evidence, and witness accounts. A collision involving suspected distracted driving may require cell phone records in addition to video and accident reconstruction. A crash involving a mechanical failure may require extensive vehicle inspection and maintenance documentation.
The most useful evidence is generally evidence that helps establish a reliable sequence of events and connects that sequence to the legal issues in the case.
For families who have lost someone in a fatal accident, obtaining and preserving that evidence can be an important early step. Kalfayan Merjanian, LLP represents families pursuing wrongful death claims in California and can investigate the circumstances surrounding a fatal accident, identify potentially important evidence, work with appropriate experts, and pursue accountability on behalf of eligible family members. Contact Kalfayan Merjanian, LLP to discuss a wrongful death and determine what evidence may be important to the claim.
