The ABA Journal recently ran an interesting article about the power of video and the potential Achilles heel of Wal-Mart.
It’s generally recognized that Wal-Mart approaches personal injury litigation with zealous earnestness. Obtaining discovery from Wal-Mart can be a difficult endeavor.
According to the article, Wal-Mart had a practice of videotaping its internal meetings. Some 15,000 videos exist. The third-party company that did the videotaping, however, almost collapsed after Wal-Mart terminated the relationship between the two companies. It survived, in part, due to making its library of Wal-Mart videos available to researchers for a fee.
Plaintiff’s lawyers are lining up to review the videos.
The article reports that Wal-Mart attempted to buy the entire library, but its offer was rejected for being too low. The lack of a written contract between the companies is allowing the videographer to claim ownership.
Given the size and economic power of Wal-Mart, will a discovery twist like this change the personal injury landscape?
