Dash cam footage in court

Superwofy

After some nasty incidents I decided to buy a dash cam. I've been driving with it for the best part of a year now. It's captured some interesting stuff in that time.

However, I've always wondered: is the footage is admissible in court? If not, why? Is there any point to it besides making YouTube videos?

Apologies if this has already been covered.

Claude Burgundy

Superwofy wrote: »

After some nasty incidents I decided to buy a dash cam. I've been driving with it for the best part of a year now. It's captured some interesting stuff in that time.

However, I've always wondered: is the footage is admissible in court? If not, why? Is there any point to it besides making YouTube videos?

Apologies if this has already been covered.

Might stop it making to court if Insurance company view it and establish blame.

biko

Had a quick google there but couldn't find any links to news sources where a case was brought up and dashcam footage used.

However it's better to have and not need it, than need it and not have it. Maybe if only for insurance disputes.

Atlantic Dawn

Footage from private investigators regularly gets used in personal injury cases to dispute claims, can't see why dash cam footage would not be also admissible.

SBPhoto

Footage from street cameras are often used in assault cases, can't see why dash cams couldn't be used

duffman3833

It would be completely stupid if a case was lost and the evidence was there on the dash cam all because of sum stupid Irish law or procedure that would prevent this as actual evidence, but only in Ireland would this happen anyway

Kimbot

Actually if I remember rightly digital imagery cannot be used as evidence in an Irish Court (Now that was 8 odd years agoo that I found that out but was true at the time). That may have all changed now though.

ironclaw

Takes a long time to go to court these days. Insurance companies will view the evidence, including a dash cam. If the blame and liability is obvious, they will settle immediately as going to court will be more costly. Its not so much a question of if you can enter it in court, its a question of whether you would ever get to court in the first place. If you manage to get to court and its been reviewed by the legal team on both sides, I doubt it will end in your favor and I'd probably be pushing for an out of court settlement in that case.

Footage has been admissable before, so I can see no barrier to it being used:

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/district-court/judge-rules-%C3%A1ras-attracta-care-home-video-footage-admissible-1.2385662

Superwofy

Good to know. Thanks for all the responses.

Victor

As I understand it, film is accepted more readily than digital and video is accepted more readily than stills, as it is easier to fake the video / stills. the judge will normally want an affidavit swearing that what is shown is what actually happened, which may be difficult for a rear-facing dash-cam.

ianobrien

I'm open to correction, but the format the data is in is most important. For example, if your still camera can take RAW images (digital SLR's do) they are accepted as the can't really be altered (as they are the raw data as captured, rather then the camera converting the data into a JPEG file). JPEG pictures are easily altered so are not really acceptable.

Dash cams can do something similar (I can't think of the file format) and the file is usually converted into a smaller file for sharing (eg YouTube). If you keep the data on the memory of the camera that usually strengthens the integrity of the files.

But, as others have said, its usually more useful to establish facts or dispute "versions" of the truth with insurance companies, etc.