CCTV Installations And Lawsuits, Who Wins?
Nuisance lawsuits are filed against businesses every day. Some are won, some are dismissed and some never come to a civil jury. The chances are that the ones that were dismissed and the ones that never came to a jury had evidence presented to either the attorneys or jury from a CCTV system. A CCTV installation provides many opportunities for a business, shoplifting is reduced, employee actions can be monitored and the actions of customers in the store can be monitored and recorded. The monitoring and recording of the actions of the customers can and will successfully reduce the number of nuisance lawsuits.
CCTV installations help the store defend against nuisance lawsuits by recording the premises of the store in a continual manner. This surveillance and recording of the actions in and around the store is vital in defending against nuisance lawsuits.
Any video tape recorder or Digital Video Recorder that records images from CCTV cameras inserts a time/date stamp onto the recording. This time/date stamp provides the evidence necessary to prove that the person filing the nuisance lawsuit was either not at the store or was not injured at the store. This time/date stamp which was created at the time of the recording can not be altered or erased and is a definitive marker of the video.
Some nuisance lawsuits involve the actions of a clerk and a customer. Should a person claim that a clerk harassed, accosted or otherwise injured a customer, the CCTV installation will show the actions of both the clerk and the customer. Should the video show no acts that could be deemed improper to the customer, the simple presentation of the video to the customers’ attorney should remediate the matter quickly.
When evaluating a potential CCTV installation in a store, the cost of the system often comes into play. The cost of the system however will provide a healthy return on investment through reduced shoplifting, the ability to monitor employees during the work day and the potential savings of defending against a nuisance lawsuit. Nuisance lawsuit awards often range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The ability of a CCTV installation to avoid that judgment makes is a worthwhile investment for the business owner.
