Should Handling Video Evidence be Taught in Law School
January 2025
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3 min read
Legal professionals are now dealing with more video evidence than ever before. The amount of video involved in legal cases has skyrocketed, with some reports showing a 125 times increase in just seven years (2013 to 2019), and it is only growing.
Lawyers are expected to collect and review these videos, edit them, and present in court, all within a tight deadline. These videos can become a deciding factor that proves innocence or guilt.
But despite the growing importance of video evidence, most law schools still don’t equip students with the skills to handle video evidence effectively.
This gap in legal education is a big problem, and it's leaving many legal professionals unprepared for the realities of modern practice.
Working with video evidence is difficult
All cases - even seemingly routine DUI cases - would include several hours of video. Legal professionals are expected to handle all of this video with the same standard as any other piece of evidence.
Video evidence can come from all kinds of sources: body cams, dash cams, security footage, smartphones, and more. Collecting it all, especially when it’s scattered across different agencies, organizations, and/or individuals is time-consuming. Adding to the complexity, these videos often come in obscure formats and not the nice, tidy .mp4 or .mov files that most software loves. To play these videos, you must hunt down obscure apps from the internet, which are often hard to find and difficult to use.
Storage is another issue—videos are often large files that require significant storage space. And when editing is required, the challenges only multiply, as this demands both technical skills and tools that many legal professionals are not trained to handle. It is a mess from start to finish.
Legal professionals are struggling to keep up with video evidence
By 2015, nearly 95% of major police departments had adopted or planned to adopt body-worn cameras. That’s a tidal wave of video evidence flooding into the justice system.
Handling this evidence has become a crucial skill for legal professionals, but it’s still not being taught to them. As a result, they’re often left to figure it out themselves, spending countless hours learning through trial and error or resorting to methods that are hard to sustain in the long run.
Many public defenders we work with share similar frustrations. They’re overwhelmed, lack proper training in handling video evidence, and are left to figure it all out while already managing a heavy workload.
Legal professionals hesitate to use modern tech for video evidence
To keep up with the growing volume of video evidence, there are a vast selection of technological tools that can help. But many lawyers either don't know these tools exist or know about them but don't want to use them. One reason could be that handling video evidence and the broader technological demands of legal work are rarely taught in law school. This lack of exposure may reinforce the belief that these tools aren’t relevant to legal work.
As a result, legal professionals often encounter them later in their careers, typically at events or conferences. By that time, they’re already entrenched in their workflows and juggling multiple responsibilities, making them more reluctant to adopt new technology. This hesitation not only slows down their ability to manage video evidence effectively but also keeps them one step behind in an increasingly tech-driven legal world.
Why legal professionals need video evidence training from day one?
Efforts are being made to teach legal professionals how to handle video evidence more efficiently, with Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs and organizations stepping in to help. Companies like ours are also doing our part by participating in conferences and showing how tools can make managing video evidence easier for legal professionals.
While these initiatives are valuable, they often come too late in a lawyer’s career, when they've already established their working habits and are juggling multiple responsibilities.
If law students were taught how to handle video evidence from the start, they'd be better equipped to deal with the growing role of video in legal work. By learning these skills early, they'd enter the workforce ready to face the challenges of modern legal practice, where video evidence plays a central role in delivering justice.
