Jun. 17, 2003

Careful Handling and Storage Can Avoid Spoliation

Focus Column - Litigation - By Randy L. Turtle - A 2001 newspaper article disclosed a surprising and disturbing fact: Evidence from various Southern California homicide investigations was being stored in an old department-store basement, with mannequins representing murder victims mixed in with weapons and other evidence from 15,000 civil and criminal trials per year. Stuart Pfeifer, "Evidence Storage Overwhelming Courts," L.A. Times, Dec. 26, 2001.