When Canadian legislators first put together the rules that relate to the evidence used during a personal injury lawsuit, no one had ever thought about using a tape recorder to create evidentiary material. Today, though, even a plaintiff or a defendant could use a smartphone to tape some aspect of an accident scene. For that reason, Ontario’s residents must learn the new rules that concern the taping of evidence.
Rules that relate to the affidavit of documents
Videos can be included in the affidavit of documents. No law states in which of the two sections any taped footage belongs. It could be placed with the documents that will be shared with the opposing party, or it could be kept with private papers.
A surveillance tape should not be excluded from the affidavit of documents just because it was taken after completion of the discovery process. Still, it should be updated. In other words, the party that ordered the surveillance ought to ensure the existence of an updated affidavit of documents.
Hopefully, this will allow the public to have a different view of surveillance videos. Their contents do not need to trigger a confrontation. Instead, their function should reflect the goals explained in the section of the significance of all these changes.
Rules that concern video in the discovery process
Whenever video gets used during the discovery process, certain specifics must be shared with all of those present. All of the people attending the discovery should know the time and date when the video was taken, as well as the location where the taping took place.
All videotaped evidence should be considered discoverable, regardless of how it has been labelled. It could be relevant to both parties, even if it never gets used as evidence. Its relevance relates to its function as a tool, one by which a personal injury lawyer in Leamington might achieve settlement in a shorter space of time.
The significance of the changes
Passage of the new rules increases the amount of evidence that becomes available to both parties before the start of any scheduled trial. In that way, it encourages the two parties to settle. Hence, the alterations in the law manage to highlight the nature of the legal process, after someone has filed a personal injury claim.
At any point in that process, the two sides can arrive at a settlement. Thus, opposing parties can more easily approach that ideal goal, when both of them have gained access to a larger amount of useful evidence. Moreover, steps have been put in place, by which any taped evidentiary material can be preserved. Furthermore, its preservation should work to hasten the arrival at an agreement between the two opposing parties.