Source: https://www.murphyprachthauser.com/blog/milwaukee-personal-injury-lawyer-blog/attorney-thadd-llaurado-has-article-published-in-nationally-distributed-trial-magazine
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 20:32:36+00:00

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Proving that a driver was distracted involves many of the same investigatory tools traditionally employed by trial lawyers. But there may be a clear advantage for a lawyer trying to prove that a driver was distracted because electronic evidence of the distracting activity may exist.
Counsel can seek discovery through many traditional tools including interrogatories, requests for production, or subpoenas. Such discovery requires the name of the defendant’s cell phone service provider and either an authorization or a subpoena to obtain all cell phone or texting records.
Discovery in distracted driving cases, however, is not always clear cut. In Morano v. Slattery Skanska, discovery issues arose with regard to alleged cell phone use by the defendant in an accident.26 A motorcyclist saw a driver “with an object in her hand held to her head” just before her car turned in front of his motorcycle and the two vehicles collided.27 The court held that the mere possession of a cell phone at the time of a collision did not entitle the plaintiff to discover the defendant’s cell phone records.28 The court required evidence of “using” a cell phone before the plaintiff could obtain discovery of the records.29 But this can be problematic. A cell phone can be used with a hands-free device or via a speaker at or below the dashboard. Requiring proof of “using” the cellular device before discovery could be difficult if no eyewitness sees a defendant’s cell phone at his or her ear.
As the prevalence of cell phone use in cars increases, more states are adopting limitations on that use. But even in jurisdictions with no laws restricting cell phone use while driving, evidence of cell phone use is generally admissible. In any distracted driving case, discovery of electronic evidence follows the same rules as other evidence, but it may be the crucial link to proving your case.
Thadd J. Llaurado is a partner with Murphy & Prachthauser in Milwaukee, and he would like to thank Tea Norfolk and M. Josef Zimmermann for their assistance with this article. He can be reached at tllaurado@murphyprachthauser.com.
Fred R. Shapiro, The Yale Book of Quotations 41 (Yale U. Press 2006).
Marcel A. Just et al., A Decrease in Brain Activation Associated With Driving When Listening to Someone Speak, Ctr. for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Dept. of Psych., Carnegie Mellon Univ. (Feb. 19, 2008), www.distraction.gov/research/PDF-Files/carnegie-mellon.pdf.
Matt Richtel, Utah Gets Tough With Texting Drivers, N.Y. Times (Aug. 28, 2009), www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/technology/29distracted.html.
This article focuses primarily on cell phone use, but other forms of distraction have also been the subject of discovery. In Pierce v. U.S., 2007 WL 1577762 (W.D. Wash. May 30, 2007), the plaintiffs asserted that the driver may have been distracted by the hamburger found on the floor of his car after the accident. The plaintiffs presented the testimony of an accident reconstruction expert, who relied on the medical examiner’s report that the driver’s stomach contained partially digested food, and on a witness who saw the car begin to drift without seeing the driver in the car. The plaintiffs further relied on a study issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which reported that dining is a distraction involved in two out of every 15 rear-end collisions. See also Lamb v. Stroud, 1990 WL 130815 (Tenn. App. Sept. 12, 1990).
Natl. Hwy. Traffic Safety Admin., Traffic Safety Facts Research Note: Driver Electronic Device Use in 2010 (Dec. 2011), www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811517.pdf.
Natl. Hwy. Traffic Safety Admin., Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving, www.distraction.gov/content/dot-action/index.html.
Lee Rainie, Smartphone Ownership Update: September 2012, www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Smartphone-Update-Sept-2012.aspx.
Mary Madden & Lee Rainie, Adults and Cell Phone Distractions, www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Cell-Phone-Distractions.aspx.
Natl. Hwy. Traffic Safety Admin., supra n. 6.
Madden & Rainie, supra n. 9. Discovery in cases involving pedestrian distraction caused by a cell phone, while beyond the scope of this article, raises comparable issues of contributory and comparative negligence.
Natl. Hwy. Traffic Safety Admin., Traffic Safety Facts Research Note: Distracted Driving 2009 (Sept. 2010), www.distraction.gov/research/PDF-Files/Distracted-Driving-2009.pdf; www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/faq.html; www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/facts-and-statistics.html.
Natl. Hwy. Traffic Safety Admin., supra n. 7, at 3.
The four states with general laws relating to distracted driving are Idaho, Maine, South Carolina, and Utah. Four states have no distracted driving laws: Hawaii, Florida, Montana, and South Dakota. Natl. Hwy. Traffic Safety Admin., State Laws, www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/state-laws.html.
Press Release, U.S. Dept. of Transp., U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Announces Federal Ban on Texting for Commercial Truck Drivers (Jan. 26, 2010), www.distraction.gov/content/press-release/2010/01-26.html.
Thomas E. Sherzan, ‘Talk 2 U L8R’: Why Cell Phones and Driving Have ‘G2G’: An Analysis of the Dangers of Cell Phone Use While Driving, 59 Drake L. Rev. 217 (Fall 2010).
Govs. Hwy. Safety Assn., Cell Phone and Texting Laws (Nov. 2012), www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html.
Williams v. Cingular Wireless, 809 N.E.2d 473, 478 (Ind. App. 3d Dist. 2004) (“A cellular phone does not cause a driver to wreck a car. Rather, it is the driver’s inattention while using the phone that may cause an accident.”); O’Toole v. Carr, 786 A.2d 121 (N.J. Super. App. Div. 2001), aff’d, 815 A.2d 471 (N.J. 2003) (noting that cell phone use at the time of an accident may constitute negligence giving rise to liability); Commonwealth v. McGrath, 805 N.E.2d 508, 514 (Mass. App. 2004) (permitting a prosecutor to introduce evidence that a defendant had a cell phone in his hand upon leaving his car and inviting the jury to infer his cell phone use at the time of a vehicular homicide); Butts v. U.S., 822 A.2d 407, 419 (D.C. App. 2003) (telephone records showing that appellant was talking on a cell phone at the time of an accident were relevant to prove negligence).
Morano v. Slattery Skanska, Inc., 846 N.Y.S.2d 881 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2007).
Mangione v. Jacobs, 950 N.Y.S.2d 457, 461 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2012); see also Belluscio v. Tuck, 2009 WL 7324046 (N.Y. Sup. filed June 30, 2009).
King v. Pagliarao Bro. Stone Co., 703 A.2d 1232, 1235 (D.C. 1997) (while talking on a “car phone would not establish negligence as a matter of law, it is at least some evidence from which a jury could infer that” a driver “was not devoting his full time and attention to his driving.”).
Scianni v. Suriano, 2007 WL 506206 (N.J. Super. App. Div. Feb. 20, 2007); Hiscott v. Peters, 754 N.E.2d 839 (Ill. App. 2d Dist. 2001), overruled on other grounds by Thornton v. Garcomo, 928 N.E.2d 804 (Ill. 2010). But see McCuish v. Jaffe, 2009 WL 3050900 (Mich. App. Sept. 24, 2009) (where a pedestrian ran into the side of a vehicle, there was no evidence of the exact time of the accident, which occurred sometime between 3:30 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., and cell phone records indicated the driver had used her phone several times between 3:49 p.m. and 4:39 p.m.).
Hiscott, 754 N.E.2d at 849.
See Williams, 809 N.E.2d at 477-78; Lowell v. Peters, 770 N.Y.S.2d 796, 799 (N.Y. App. Div. 3d Dept. 2004). But see Morgenstern v. Knight, 134 P.3d 897, 898 (Okla. Civ. App. 2006) (holding that plaintiff’s alleged use of a cell phone during the automobile accident did not constitute sufficient evidence to warrant submitting the issue of contributory negligence to the jury); Lauseng v. Zink, 2009 WL 5194514 (Mich. App. Dec. 17, 2009) (absent law prohibiting cell phone use, even if there were sufficient evidence to show defendant was talking on cell phone at the time she struck the decedent, talking on a cell phone while driving does not constitute negligence per se).
Id. Since Morano was decided, another court held that under certain circumstances even the use of a hands-free device can constitute a distraction for drivers. See Mangione, 950 N.Y.S.2d at 461.
Morano, 846 N.Y.S.2d at 887.
See Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c).
See Foddrill v. Crane, 894 N.E.2d 1070 (Ind. App. 2d Dist. 2008) (where there was no evidence of inclement weather, road defects, mechanical failure, or other circumstances that would lead to a rear-end collision, and the plaintiff saw defendant driver leave his vehicle with a cell phone in his hand. The defendant claimed the phone was inoperative, but the court allowed a reasonable inference that he was using his cell phone at the time of the accident and was distracted by it).
Detraglia v. Grant, 890 N.Y.S.2d 696 (N.Y. App. Div. 3d Dept. 2009).
S.E. Mech. Serv. v. Brody, 657 F. Supp. 2d 1293 (M.D. Fla. 2009).
Id. at 1300. In addition to call records available through wireless service providers, data can be stored directly on a device. Another unique consideration not covered in Brody or this article is that of disposable cell phones. Although a user of a disposable cell phone does not have a normal service plan, the wireless provider of that disposable phone may still have records of phone activity.

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