Production of Surveillance Video if no Intent to use at Trial
Submitted by Philip Wiseberg on 14 May, 2018
Attorneys that litigate personal injury matters are quite familiar with the requirements on the disclosure of surveillance pursuant to Dodson v. Persell, 390 So. 2d 704 (Fla. 1980). Recently, the First District Court of Appeals heard a case that pertained to the request to produce all video surveillance taken, even that which was not going to be used at trial, from two separate periods of surveillance.
In Hunt v. Lightfoot, 2018WL797482 (Fla. 1st DCA February 9, 2018), Lightfoot served discovery requests on Hunt for all materials related to surveillance that had been conducted. Hunt objected as to attorney work product but agreed to produce the surveillance materials that she intended to use at trial. There were two distinct and separate periods of surveillance conducted of Lightfoot; 2014 and 2016. Hunt only intended to present at trial the surveillance from 2014 and not from 2016.
Lightfoot argued in his Motion to Compel that Hunt should produce all surveillance materials from both time frames as Hunt intended to use some of the surveillance at trial. Hunt argued that he was only required to produce the surveillance from the time period he intended to use at trial as the two periods of surveillance were distinct and separate.
The First DCA held that the 2016 surveillance, which Hunt was not going to use at trial, was not discoverable absent a showing of extraordinary circumstances. The court reasoned that the videos did not depict a continuous period of surveillance which on fairness and completeness principles would require production of all the surveillance. Since they involved entirely separate periods of surveillance, production of surveillance from one period does not require production from the other period.
This scenario would most likely arise when there is pre-suit surveillance and then surveillance is conducted while the claim is in suit. If you intend to only use the pre-suit surveillance at trial, you cannot be compelled to produce the surveillance conducted while in suit if you do not intend to use it at trial.