Day-in-the-Life Video

The primary goal of a Day-in-the-Life Video is to accurately record the injured party’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 10 to 30-minute tape. For instance, a lawsuit may involve a person who now must live his or her life being blind, deaf, or with a severe muscular injury, or constantly under mental anguish. The elements of pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of wages often are the most difficult aspects of a case for a jury to picture. When you need to show 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, pain, and mental anguish.

• A Day-in-the-Life Video should include 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.

• When making a Day-in-the-Life Video, you should identify the daily activities, possibly mapping out the daily routing with a storyboard or chart of daily/nightly activities.

• 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.

• Day-in-the-life documentaries have been legally attacked when these documentaries do not represent an actual day in the life of an injured person, but a series of days.

• After taping is completed, the lawyer must edit the video by herself or with a professional editor. The lawyer reviews and approves the final edited video.

• Be careful about what is taped.  You don’t want the other lawyer to find a piece of tape with someone saying, “Let’s do that again, I can make it look better”, or have a great take with a physical therapist in the background saying, “Boy, this guy oughta get ten million dollars for this injury!”  You can even incur hearsay objections because of any comments made on tape where the person cannot be cross-examined.

• A “day-in-the-life” documentary that is fair and objective is a formidable method of presenting evidence.  It is also difficult to defend against.  However, a poor one can be impeached and held inadmissible if it is not objective and/or focuses too much on pain and suffering. It can be an extreme disaster if you attempt to create something that doesn’t exist by overstepping objective boundaries, overemphasizing any points or attempting to taint the information in any way.