Q: Do I have a right too surveillance of a fall I endeared I suffered injury for?

A: It may be illegal to voice record a conversation in secret if you are in the store or another public place. You can legally record phone calls you make FROM YOUR HOME, where you are in your house recording the call. The theory is you can consent to a phone call made on your own phone in your own house so Oregon Law allows the recording because one person in the conversation consented to the recording. But this doesn't apply to recordings made way from your home. However even that type of recording my have times when it is illegal and not admissible. So you will probably want to talk to an attorney who is a specialist on what types of surveillance is allowed and will be later admissible in court. (As a practical matter the court isn't going to call the police on you but they will ban the introduction of illegally obtained evidence.)

The way to get around doing an illegal recording is to go to the store with another person who is your live witness to what is said. The witness can later testify in court or verify what was said. The witness should write down their memory of the conversation immediately after leaving the store while it is fresh in their memory. I recommend hiring a professional investigator and going to the store with the investigator. Otherwise make sure your witness is someone with sound credentials who can't be impeached as a witness for being biased toward you (a close friend or relative) or because they have criminal background. A professional investigator will work best.

In terms of the video surveillance, you can ask to see it but they don't have a duty to show it to you pre-litigation. What some attorneys will do is send a letter to the defendant telling them what types of evidence is critical to a case and asking that they preserve that evidence. Then, later when a case is filed in court and there is subpoena power to subpoena the evidence the store will be asked to produce it. The store will either have it and produce it or they will say it doesn't exist or it was destroyed. Your attorney will make the argument that the store deliberately hid or destroyed evidence. This may or may not help your case. This is the way my colleagues have told me they deal with this type of situation but I suspect there are other things you can do. I just don't know what they are so you will have to ask around. But the fact of the situation is you only have the power to force someone to give you evidence after you file a lawsuit because only then do you have the power to subpoena evidence. A subpoena has to issue under the power of the court which means there has to be an active case pending.

There are attorneys who specialize in slip and fall cases and they may have other ideas for pre-litigation tactics to get evidence. But the logs you are talking about for checking and cleaning can be obtained after the case is filed using subpoena power. Alternatively, the attorney will take the deposition of the store employees and ask them what the policy and procedures are.

If your injury is serious, an attorney may be wiling to risk investing in a lawsuit and doing the discovery process to investigate the case further. Even in a smaller type injury case, there may be an incentive to take the case if an attorney can make a demand using ORS 20.080 which is for cases worth $10,000 or less. Keep in mind, that your medical insurance is going to have a lien on your case under Oregon Law so any money you and your attorney recover has to first go to pay attorney fees and to reimburse your medical insurance. This prospect often makes these cases not attractive to pursue in addition to the risk that the defendant will escape liability.

The best thing you can do is get off of the internet and start calling and talking to attorneys in your area that specialize in slip and fall cases. You may have to call several attorneys to find the right one.

A: PS if you call enough attorneys and your fall was in a big brand store, you might find an attorney who has previously dealt with slips and falls in that store and already has information on their standard practices and procedures. (You can research by going to the courthouse what cases for slip and fall have been brought against that store in the past and find out which attorneys brought those cases - but remember you have to research under both the store's name and the registered parent company name. So first check on line for what names the store could be registered under as a business entity. http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.login Here is the webpage where you can run a business name search. Be sure to note any other names of businesses that are linked to the store. The court records could be under one or more business names. You will then need to go to the courthouse and ask a clerk to help you search on the computer for lawsuits involving that business. More recent cases will have document that you can click on a view on the computer.

A: You do not have a right to the video or the polices and procedures until after you sue. You would also ask for the sweep sheets, which tell you when they did their rounds. And it is never legal to record an in-person conversation without the consent of all people.