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Protecting Evidence In The Digital Age

26 December 2015

Tracy Roberts

Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices are almost everywhere these days. If you're involved in an accident, there's a chance that someone in the area will have digital video footage and pictures of the aftermath (if not the accident as it happens). If the evidence works to your benefit because it wasn't your fault, there are a few protections that need to be in place to make sure that the evidence is ready for litigation--especially if the evidence is on your own phone.

Erasing Evidence: Not As Simple As You'd Think

To non-technical users, getting rid of information seems so simple. On mobile devices of any brand, you can simply navigate to the camera app (application) and delete the files! If you need these files, you certainly don't want the evidence to fall into the wrong hands. Deletion isn't as final as it seems, but it can still slow down the process.

Mobile devices are still computers. In fact, smartphones are handheld computers with a small radio feature added. Since they're computers using modern computer techniques, deleting a file merely removes the mapping location of the file. 

This means that the smartphone or tablet is just erasing a file's location on a map. These location markers say to the computer, "Hey, there's something here. Don't delete this!" as the system looks for a place to store new files. If there's no marker, the computer can write something else over the "delete" information.

If the device with evidence is stolen and information deleted, there's still a chance. At the first layer of recovery, there are apps for mobile devices and bigger computers that can simply undo the deletion. If that option isn't there or if the information was written (or recorded) over, the recovery method simply becomes more technical. For most cases, unless the device is permanently hidden or utterly destroyed, the files can still be accessed.

Unfortunately, if the files are written over, the recovery process can be slow and may buy time for your opponent. Thankfully, there's a few ways to protect your interests when it comes to using digital proof.

A Few Ways To Share Evidence

First, contact a lawyer. Unless you're in immediate threat of physical harm or theft, you'll want to make sure that the files sent to others are within legal limits. Although this isn't legal advice and not a violation of a specific law on its own, you'll want to protect the personal identity of both your opponent and any bystanders who may not want their faces plastered all over the Internet and on other people's devices.

To be safe, limit sending any evidence to close friends and legal professionals. Find out if your local police precinct has an email address that can accept (and organize) the evidence. Don't be in a rush to send the files to any address available with the police, because you don't want to risk the files being lost in a lot of irrelevant traffic or on an inactive email address.

A lawyer can also accept the information. Be sure to contact an auto accident attorney from a firm like Burgess & Perigard, not only to accept your files, but to discuss a strategy for using the evidence in the right way and censoring anyone who may not be relevant to the case. If the censored people are needed for investigation, they can still be found using the original evidence. Just respect the rights of everyone and make sure that you're not exposing yourself to legal trouble.

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