Every single piece of evidence requested by Form Interrogatory 13.1 and 13.2 is critical to successfully cross examine the defense private investigator and uncover the full extent of surveillance or any potential improper editing. Thus, you can easily begin aggressively conducting discovery of sub rosa evidence by serving form interrogatories that includes the 13 series. Moreover, Form Interrogatory 13.2 requires the responding party to identify information for any written surveillance reports including the title, date, name of author, and identification of the person who has the original or copy. Form Interrogatory 13.1 specifically requires the responding party to identify the name, address and telephone number of the individual conducting surveillance the time, date, and place of surveillance and the name, address and telephone number of each person who has the original or copy of any surveillance photograph, film or videotape. The California Judicial Council has confirmed this position recognizing the discoverability of sub rosa evidence as reflecting in Judicial Council Form Interrogatory 13 series. Superior Court (1962) 58 Cal.2d 166.) The Suezaki case remains the leading authority in California on this topic. Sub rosa of the plaintiff is subject to discoveryĬalifornia has long held that photographs and films of surveillance are subject to discovery and, further, that such evidence is not protected by the attorney-client or work-product privilege.
Define sub rosa how to#
The purpose of this article is to provide guidance to the plaintiff attorney on how to expose the sub rosa corruption, and use it to your advantage. If you diligently fight to discover sub rosa evidence from beginning to end, you will often be able to either keep the evidence out of trial, minimize the harm it can cause, or in some cases use it to your advantage. Also, objections on the grounds of foundation, authentication and/or the doctrine of completeness can pose significant problems for a defense attorney trying to use improperly edited sub rosa video. There are various tools of discovery or statutes which can be useful in the fight against the improper use of sub rosa. Regardless of whether the sub rosa evidence is being taken out of context or being manipulated, this corruption cannot be tolerated. These fraudulent attempts at creating alleged impeachment evidence by manipulating sub rosa video are unfortunately becoming more and more common. Similarly, we have seen the video titled, angled or skewed to impact on the appearance of the video such as to make it appear that the plaintiff is walking up a hill when they were on a flat surface. We have experienced in various recent trials that the defense has attempted to introduce video sub rosa of the plaintiff which was digitally sped up to make it appear that the plaintiff was walking faster than she claimed she could. The much more devious use of sub rosa evidence involves video that is manipulated. These are now typical defense sub rosa tactics. In short, the sub rosa evidence is drastically edited to be taken out of context which creates a false impression of plaintiff’s medical condition or need for future treatment. The videos are also edited to make it appear that the plaintiff is engaging in activities in an order or time frame that is highly distorted and inaccurate.
The investigator then takes the hundreds of hours of sub rosa video and edits it down to a few clips which are only a minute or a few seconds long. For example, it has become common for the defense to hire a private investigator to engage in hundreds of hours of secret sub rosa video over many days, weeks or even months, in hopes of recording the plaintiff doing some activity inconsistent with their claimed injuries or deficits. The reason is that the classic use of sub rosa to expose an allegedly dishonest plaintiff has evolved into a corrupt practice of using advanced video editing technology to make a truly injured plaintiff appear to be not injured, or less injured.Įspecially with catastrophic-injury cases, the defense industry’s regular use of sub rosa now involves editing and manipulating video to create a false or inaccurate appearance of the plaintiff being less injured.
Define sub rosa trial#
To avoid being ambushed in trial it is necessary to aggressively pursue surveillance evidence (aka “ sub rosa”) from the beginning to the end of every personal-injury case.
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