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Author: Contributor: Sergei Lemberg
Why Is It Important to Provide Evidence, Even if the Other Side Has It?
This seems like common sense. If you are suing a debt collector for harassing calls, the debt collector knows they called you and what they said. If you are suing a car manufacturer for a Lemon Law claim, they can probably easily access your repair orders through the dealership. Why should you go through the hassle of gathering documents when the other side already has them?
The answer is one of the fundamental principles of our court system: the burden of proof rests with the plaintiff. As the person making the claim, you need to provide the evidence to support your case. The person you are suing is not going to help you win the case against them.
“Innocent until proven guilty” is one of the cornerstones of our justice system. The same principle applies in our civil litigation system, the realm of debt collection suits and lemon law claims. The defendant, the person you are suing, is blameless…until YOU prove otherwise.
Think of it this way. Your neighbor claims his property extends five feet into what you have always thought to be your land. Are you going to dig up your deed and hand it over so he can use it as evidence to prove his case against you? Of course not! You are going to make him do his own research and gather his own proof while you keep yours to yourself. Later, if the case goes to court, you may be compelled to give a copy of your deed to the other side in what is called “discovery,” but for now, it’s for your eyes only. Whether it shows your neighbor is correct or not, you have a right to keep that information confidential until the court says otherwise.
Therefore, when you are interested in starting a case, you need to provide your evidence. Has your car spent forty days in the repair shop? You need to present a work order that shows that. Has a debt collector called you fifteen times a day threatening you? You may not be able to prove exactly what the debt collector said, but you can take screenshots proving the debt collector called you fifteen times and the duration of each call suggesting a conversation, which is circumstantial evidence supporting your claim.
In your daily life, your word is usually enough. For instance, if your local fast food establishment forgets your french fries, normally the staff will just give them to you. They would not demand a lab report analyzing the contents of your stomach to prove you didn’t already eat them.
In the legal world, you are trying to resolve a conflict with another party who has an opposing interest. If the case ends up in court, you need to present as much evidence as possible to the judge or jury to convince them that you are right. Requiring evidence is nothing personal. It does not mean that anyone thinks you are a liar. Civil courts make decisions based on whether a “preponderance of the evidence” supports your claim.
Most of the time, cases do not go to court. This is because the defendant has reviewed all the evidence pre-litigation and decided it would be more cost-effective to settle the case rather than expend money and resources defending the claim in court. This is another reason why providing evidence is important because it can demonstrate the strength of your case to the defendant.
The bottom line is: the better your evidence, the higher your chance of success.
About the author:
Contributor: Sergei Lemberg
Sergei Lemberg is a consumer rights attorney, practicing since 2006, whose practice focuses on consumer law, class actions and personal injury litigation. He is known for a United States Supreme Court case (Facebook v. Duguid) defending consumers from autodialers under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 to send unsolicited text messages. He is also the author of Defanging Debt Collectors, a book that teaches consumers how to battle debt collectors and win.
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