The Employer’s Legal Advisor

Videocameras and Videotaping

Videocameras are a blessing, enabling you to demonstrate complex facts without elaborate testimony, charts, and graphs. My first experience using videotape came when a client, Juanita, was confronted by a union employee, Ralph, who wanted to return to work after settlement of a workers compensation claim. Juanita did not want Ralph back because he had suffered a ruptured vertebral disk that he chose not to have repaired. Ralph’s job was physical and involved swinging a heavy sledgehammer and lifting heavy weights. Ralph would obviously reinjure himself if he returned to work.

The factual and legal problem was that Ralph had a release to return to full duty from the company doctor, Dr. Cornwall. When Juanita refused ...