Spoliation in a legal context can refer to the loss, alteration, or destruction of evidence in a case. Essentially, spoliation occurs when the evidence has been “spoiled” in some manner, making it unavailable for trial. It can be intentional or unintentional. For example, an apartment building’s automated surveillance video system that recorded a slip-and-fall accident but deletes the captured footage automatically on a predetermined schedule might unintentionally cause spoliation of evidence. A doctor who tampers with a medical record to delete information regarding a patient’s history or presentation of symptoms with the hope it will weaken a patient’s medical malpractice case against the doctor has engaged in intentional spoliation of evidence. What Is Spoliation of Evidence and Why Should You Care?
To achieve business success, is education necessary? Not always! Many entrepreneurs without formal education have left a mark on their respective industries and started businesses such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Virgin Group. And Kierra Henderson, better known as the Trucking Guru, has recently added her name to the list of prominent successful entrepreneurs who never finished high school. Henderson faced adversity countless times during her youth, dropped out of high school, became a teen mom, and found herself in trouble with the law. To give herself and her daughter a chance at a better future, she turned her life around and was hired by a local AT&T store. In this position, she won several awards and regularly earned management’s recognition. However, the company outsourced her job overseas, leaving Henderson scrambling to find something new. A friend told her to get into the trucking industry. She knew nothing about trucking but figured it was worth a shot. She lied on her resume, claiming to have a degree and even making up a former employer to make herself more hireable. This company didn’t look into Henderson’s background and offered her the job. Unfortunately, the work was more difficult than Henderson anticipated. She messed up continually but was determined to keep the job and worked to improve. Before she knew it, she had earned an operations manager position with the same company. Eventually, she learned how to dispatch and started doing it on her own time. After she raised enough funds, she bought a truck and partnered with a trucking company to bring in more money. One truck became two trucks, and two trucks quickly became four. Today, Henderson’s fleet consists of 116 trucks and has brought in more than $100 million. In 2021, she launched The Truckin’ Millionaires Tour, where she offered training and coaching to educate people on self-sufficiency in the trucking industry. She even hosted a huge convention in Dallas in October 2023 called the TTG Fest, featuring over 13 guest speakers who discussed trucking, the transportation industry, and entrepreneurship. Henderson’s story proves your past does not determine your future. Even if you dropped out of school, made mistakes, and found yourself in legal trouble, you can still turn it around, find a new passion, and reach new levels of success. Don’t let any obstacle block your progress! Keep On Trucking How Kierra Henderson Built Her Multimillion-Dollar Empire
When our law firm is retained to advocate on behalf of an injured client and the particular circumstances of the case call for it, we promptly send the at-fault party a “non-spoliation letter.” This letter demands
that the party receiving it preserve and retain all photographs and videotapes of the areas within a specified distance and for a specified time period from
before until after the subject accident. The evidence to be preserved can vary significantly depending on the events that caused the injury. Mentioned previously were a trip-and-fall and a medical malpractice case. Other examples of evidence to preserve would be any GPS devices, “black box” (a device that records driving time and in
some cases vehicle speed at the time of the accident, etc.), and any other on-board recording devices in a truck accident case. As you can see, the variety of items an at-fault party may be called upon to preserve after an accident can be extensive. Why should you care? If it can be shown that an at-fault party negligently or intentionally disregarded a timely served non-spoliation letter, the consequences for the case outcome can be dramatic. In some cases, a court may dismiss the defendant’s answer, meaning the at-fault party is liable. The case then moves on to proceedings to determine the value of the injured party’s damages. In other cases, a jury, in their deliberations, may view the defendant unfavorably when they learn that critical information, which may have helped the plaintiff’s case, “conveniently” became unavailable. The takeaway: Please call us ASAP after an accident. We want to take every step we can to build the strongest case possible for our clients, including serving a non-spoliation letter right away.
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