What Evidence Should Be Preserved After a Costco Injury

A useful request identifies the store and the accident closely enough that someone can find the records. Give your lawyer the address, the part of the warehouse where you fell and your best time estimate. Counsel can then identify the camera views and a reasonable period before the fall through the cleanup.

Keep the receipt. Its timestamp may help locate your visit, even if you do not know the exact time of the fall. It does not establish when the spill appeared.

Ask counsel which of these records the incident calls for:

• Original video exports from the relevant cameras.
• Records showing who accessed or edited the recordings.
• Inspection entries and staff messages about the area.
• Maintenance records for any equipment involved.
• The incident report and its attachments.

Where a preservation duty applies, the request should ask that routine deletion be suspended. New records may identify an additional camera or show that the original time window needs to be expanded.

Deal with urgent medical needs first. If you or someone with you can safely take photographs, leave cones and other warnings in place. The record should show what was there.

• Where it happened: take a wide view of the approach, with an aisle marker or another fixed feature that identifies the spot.
• What was there: take closer photographs of the hazard, the floor surface and any warning. Include a scale only when safe and without disturbing the scene.
• What was nearby: photograph relevant lighting, a refrigerator, sample station, pallet or product that may help explain the condition.
• Who saw it: record witness names, contact details and what each person saw firsthand. Avoid suggesting an answer about how long the hazard was there.
• Who was told: note the date, time, exact aisle or entrance, the staff member who received your report and what you said.

Keep the files that came from the phone or camera, with their metadata. A compressed copy in a message may contain less information. Asking a witness “Did you see the water before I fell?” allows an account in their own words; telling them it must have been there a long time does not.

This hypothetical separates the photograph you kept from the video you later requested:

There may still be another copy. Counsel can follow up on the missing recording:

• Did a manager export or save any footage before the original was overwritten?
• Does a second camera cover the same location?
• Does the surviving clip include the approach to the fall, or only the fall itself?
• Who received the request, on what date, and what response was given?

Retain that correspondence with the dated request so the sequence can be checked later.

In Brookshire Brothers v. Aldridge, the Texas Supreme Court explains when a party must preserve evidence. The party must know, or reasonably should know, that there is a substantial chance of a claim and that material, relevant evidence is in its possession or control. That point can come before a formal preservation letter.

The judge decides whether that duty existed and whether it was breached. Any remedy must account for the party's culpability and the prejudice caused by the loss. Missing video does not, by itself, justify telling the jury to treat the lost recording as unfavorable to the party that failed to preserve it.

Keep the correspondence together with a request log. For example:

Do not sort out and discard photographs you think are bad for your case. Keep them and show your lawyer. Describe your first symptoms, including any similar problems before this accident. If the floor had already been cleaned when you took a picture, make that clear. Note who moved a sign or removed material and when, if you know. A recreated scene must never be passed off as an original “before” photograph.

Ask a shopper with photographs or a driver with relevant dashcam footage for the original file and permission to use it. Record the source. If a requested record is unavailable, write down who checked and what they checked. Keep their explanation—for example, that no camera covered the aisle. The purpose is to investigate the hazard's source and duration; any request for sanctions needs separate legal analysis.