Why Records Decide Injury Claims, From a Sidewalk Fall to a Nursing Home Bed

Injury claims are rarely won on the strength of a single dramatic fact. They are built from records, photographs, names and dates collected by people who were often in pain or under stress at the time. A fall on a Staten Island sidewalk, a crash on a Westchester parkway and a decline in a relative’s care at a nursing facility look very different on the surface. Underneath, each one depends on whether someone captured what happened before the evidence faded. The Scene Is Only the Beginning People tend to picture evidence as something collected at the scene of an accident. For many injuries the scene is gone within hours, since a spill gets mopped, a pothole gets patched or a vehicle gets towed. One example is a local search for an accident lawyer staten island residents run after a fall, which usually leads to a first question about whether anyone took photographs.

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