Setareh Law
June 3, 2026
When evidence tied to your accident disappears, gets deleted, or is quietly discarded, your ability to recover compensation may disappear along with it. This legal concept, known as spoliation of evidence, is one of the most consequential and least discussed issues in personal injury law. Whether it works in your favor or against you often depends on how quickly you act and whether you have the right legal team on your side.
At Setareh Law, we take evidence preservation seriously from the moment a client contacts us. Our attorneys have recovered over $250 million for injured Californians across a wide range of personal injury cases, and we understand that protecting evidence early can be just as important as building legal arguments later. We offer bilingual services, home visits, and contingency fee representation, meaning you pay nothing unless we recover for you.
What Spoliation of Evidence Means
Spoliation refers to the destruction, alteration, concealment, or failure to preserve evidence that is relevant to a pending or anticipated legal proceeding. In a personal injury claim, this can involve a business deleting surveillance footage after a slip and fall, a driver or insurance company disposing of a vehicle before it can be inspected, or a property owner conducting repairs that erase signs of a dangerous condition.
California courts treat spoliation seriously. Under the California Civil Discovery Act, courts have broad authority to impose sanctions when evidence is improperly destroyed or withheld. One of the most significant consequences is an adverse inference instruction, which allows a jury to presume that the destroyed evidence would have been harmful to the party responsible for its loss. That presumption alone can dramatically affect the outcome of a trial.
How Spoliation Can Affect Your Claim
If a defendant, insurer, or third party destroys or conceals evidence, your attorney can ask the court to impose sanctions. Depending on the severity of the conduct, those sanctions may include monetary penalties, exclusion of testimony, or instructions to the jury that draw a negative inference against the offending party. In the most egregious cases, courts may dismiss a defendant’s defenses or enter default judgment in favor of the injured party.
When You Have a Duty to Preserve Evidence
Evidence preservation is not just a concern for defendants. Once litigation is reasonably foreseeable, you also have an obligation to safeguard relevant materials. According to the California Lawyers Association, California civil discovery statutes encourage attorneys to instruct clients early to preserve any potentially relevant evidence, because the negative inference from its destruction can harm a client’s case as much as the evidence itself. This means the photos you took at the scene, your medical records, and your communications about the accident should all be retained carefully from day one.
What Evidence Is at Risk in Personal Injury Cases
The types of evidence most vulnerable to spoliation vary depending on the type of accident. Some of the most commonly at-risk materials include:
- Surveillance footage: Businesses and traffic cameras typically overwrite recordings within 24 to 72 hours, making rapid legal action critical
- Vehicle data: Black box or event data recorder information from cars and trucks involved in auto accidents can be lost after repairs or when a vehicle is sold
- Incident reports: Documents generated after a fall or injury on someone’s premises may be altered, lost, or never properly retained
- Medical imaging and records: Imaging from a brain injury or other serious trauma must be preserved and not inadvertently discarded by providers
- Digital communications: Texts, emails, and internal messages between employees or company representatives often contain admissions that are later claimed to be unavailable
Sending a formal preservation letter as early as possible puts the opposing party on notice of their legal duty to retain relevant materials, which can be critical if evidence later goes missing.
What Happens When You Suspect Spoliation
If you believe evidence in your case has been tampered with or destroyed, your attorney can pursue several remedies. These include filing a motion for sanctions under California Code of Civil Procedure § 2023.030, requesting adverse jury instructions, and presenting the pattern of evidence destruction as part of your overall case strategy. In wrongful death cases, where physical evidence may be especially fragile, acting swiftly is essential to preserving what remains.
Courts have consistently held that spoliation undermines the fairness of the legal process. When a party destroys evidence, they do not simply remove unfavorable information from the case. They also force the opposing side to spend time and resources trying to reconstruct what was lost, often at significant disadvantage. California courts have the authority to level that playing field.
Contact Setareh Law Today to Protect Your Case
Evidence can vanish faster than most people realize, and every day that passes after an accident is a day that critical proof may be slipping away. At Setareh Law, our attorneys move quickly to issue preservation demands, gather available evidence, and position your claim for the strongest possible outcome. With over 60 years of combined experience and more than 400 five-star Google reviews, we are committed to fighting hard for every client we serve.
We handle cases throughout California with eight office locations and home visits available for clients who cannot come to us. No matter how complex the circumstances of your case, we are prepared to advocate aggressively for your rights. To speak with our team and take the first step toward protecting your claim, please contact us today.
