Spoliation letter
A spoliation letter is a written notice telling a party to preserve evidence relevant to a claim, sent early so that destroying it afterward carries consequences.
Sent at the very start of a case, often before suit, to whoever holds evidence that might otherwise disappear on a normal retention schedule.
What it typically asks to be preserved
- Vehicle event data recorders, before the vehicle is repaired or scrapped
- Surveillance footage, which many systems overwrite within days
- Driver logs, maintenance records and dispatch data in trucking matters
- Incident reports and internal communications
Why timing is everything
Most of what these letters protect is destroyed by routine, not by intent. Footage overwrites on a thirty-day loop whether or not anyone is thinking about litigation. A letter sent in week six protects nothing that was already gone in week five.
Which makes it an intake problem: the letter has to go out before anyone has decided whether the case is worth taking.
Not ready to book a call
Send us five pages of a record set. We will send back what we found in it.
Five pages is enough, redacted however you like. You get a short video back within two business days showing what a chronology would surface from it: the dates, the gaps, the things worth knowing before the other side finds them.
- Send five pages of a real file. Redact whatever you like first.
- We run them and record what comes out, including what it misses.
- You get the video within two business days. If there is nothing worth showing, we say so.