By Hon. (Ret.) Ken E. Adair 
Don’t Cave into Silly Claims About Sub-Rosa Video
Video Transcribed: How many of you have ever represented an injured person and encountered in the course of discovery in the course of litigation and depositions found out that there’s, what’s called a Sub-Rosa video.
That is where the insurance company or their trial attorney has hired somebody to go videotape your client out in the yard, carry in groceries, or take out the trash or playing in the yard with the children or other things like that, that are inconsistent, seemingly inconsistent.
And maybe, obviously, the optics are terrible, inconsistent with their statement that they can’t do certain things. And most lawyers just cave in and they chew their clients out and settle the case.
We’ll sit down with your client and ask your client, “What do you do when you’re done carrying in the groceries? What do you do when you’re done playing with your children or taking the garbage out or working in your garden or mowing your lawn?”
Life doesn’t stop. When a person is injured, ask them what it’s like for them afterward. And what you’ll find out is that the story that Sub-Rosa videos don’t tell is what happens in the living room, when this person goes inside and they pop open a pain pill bottle and they take out a pain pill to take a pain pill because they’re miserable.
And sometimes they’ll tell you that they get upset. It makes them cry, or they sit in their recliner for the rest of the afternoon or the evening depressed and sad because they hurt so bad.
And they to be the father, they try to be the husband, they try to be the spouse, the wife, and mother that they know that they ought to be, but they’re limited in what they can do.
So the Sub-Rosa video has always shown the stuff outside. They don’t show the stuff in the living room, they don’t show the stuff in the medicine cabinet or in the bathroom.
They don’t show the tears that are shed behind the scenes. So if you end up finding out that there is a Sub-Rosa video and the optics are terrible and it makes your client look terrible. Don’t give up, sit down, and have a heart to heart with your client about what it’s really like when they go inside.
I hope this video has been helpful to you. Don’t give up and don’t cave in for silly reasons like the existence of a Sub-Rosa video. If You are looking for First and Second Chair Co-Counsel, Focus Groups & Mock Jury Sociometrics, Jury Trial Preparation Services, visit trial-win.com