The evidence that disappears, and how fast
Almost everything people worry about after an injury can wait. A handful of things genuinely cannot, because they delete themselves on a schedule that has nothing to do with your case. This is that schedule.
Days: camera footage
What to do, within days rather than weeks:
- Walk or drive the scene and photograph every camera you can see. Businesses, homes, parking lots, buses, ATMs, traffic cameras. Note the address of each.
- Ask in writing. A short, polite letter or email to each property asking them to preserve footage from a specified date and time window. Keep a copy and a record of when you sent it.
- Be specific about the window. "The two hours either side of 4:15pm on 12 March" is actionable. "That afternoon" invites a refusal.
- Ask the police whether they collected any. Officers sometimes view footage at the scene without taking a copy.
Once a property is on notice that footage matters, destroying it has consequences — a court can instruct a jury that it may infer the destroyed evidence was unfavorable. Before that notice, the loop simply runs.
Days to weeks: the vehicles
Vehicles are repaired, sold at salvage auction or scrapped quickly after a total loss. Once gone, the physical evidence goes with them: crush patterns, paint transfer, the state of the seats and restraints, and the event data recorder.
Most modern vehicles record a few seconds of data around a crash event — speed, throttle, braking, seatbelt status, change in velocity. In a disputed case that is often the most objective evidence available, and downloading it requires the physical vehicle.
If liability is contested or the injury is serious, say so to your insurer before authorising disposal, and photograph the vehicle thoroughly from every angle and from inside before it goes anywhere.
Weeks to months: commercial and company records
This is where truck cases are won and lost. Commercial carriers keep a great deal of data, and much of it on retention schedules measured in months rather than years.
- Electronic logging device records, which show hours of service
- Engine control module data
- In-cab and forward-facing camera footage
- Dispatch and load records showing the schedule the driver was given
- Driver qualification file, maintenance history and inspection records
- Post-accident drug and alcohol testing
A preservation letter to the carrier and its insurer stops the ordinary retention clock. After that letter, disposing of those records has consequences. Before it, the company has done nothing wrong by following its own schedule. See truck accident claims.
The same logic applies to a shop's sweep and inspection logs, a venue's incident reports, a bus operator's maintenance records and a property manager's complaint history.
Months: memory and people
Witnesses move, change phone numbers and leave jobs. Staff turnover in retail and hospitality is rapid, and the employee who said "I told them about that leak this morning" may be unreachable in six weeks.
Memory degrades in a particular way that matters here: people do not forget wholesale, they reconstruct, filling gaps with what seems plausible. A short written account taken in the first week is worth considerably more than a careful statement taken a year later.
- Get names, mobile numbers and email addresses at the scene, not just names.
- Write your own account within the first few days, including the parts you are unsure about, and date it.
- Photograph your injuries as they develop. Bruising peaks at day two or three; road rash looks worst around day three.
Years: the deadline
The limitation period is the one deadline people know about and it is the least urgent of everything on this page, because by the time it matters, everything above is long gone.
Two years for most personal injury claims (Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1). Six months to present a claim against a public entity (Gov. Code § 911.2). Use the deadline checker to see which applies to you.
Questions people ask
A shop says it will not give me its camera footage. Can I make them?
Not directly, and not without a lawsuit. What you can do immediately is put them on written notice to preserve it, which changes the position significantly — destroying evidence after notice can allow a court to instruct a jury to infer it was unfavorable. Once a case is filed, the footage can be subpoenaed, but only if it still exists.
How soon do I need to do this?
Camera footage within days. Vehicle evidence within a week or two. Commercial records within weeks, via a preservation letter. Witness details immediately. The legal deadline is years away and is the least urgent item on the list.
My car has already been scrapped. Have I lost the case?
Not necessarily, but you have lost one source of evidence. Photographs, the repair estimate with its damage schedule, the collision report and the other vehicle may all still be available. Tell whoever is handling your claim early so nothing else is lost.
Related
Reviewed October 2026 by Simon Aziz Budhwani, Esq., the attorney responsible for this site. Legal statements here name the California code section they rely on, so you can check them rather than trust them. This is information about the law in general, not advice about your situation.
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