david foleys blog

David Foley's Labor and Employment Law Blog

Monday, August 1, 2011

Is there a coming CSI effect in LEL?

Rick Bales at Workplace Prof linked to an article from Business Insider about the way that smart phones are making workplace secret recordings more common.  The article contains this quote:

Katrina Patrick, a Houston lawyer who represents aggrieved employees, says that more than 50 percent of the people who come to her office bring digital evidence. "I'm more surprised when someone comes into my office without digital evidence," she says.
Reading Patrick's remark, makes me think of the Casey Anthony trial and the CSI effect.  The CSI effect occurs when jurors come to demand more forensic evidence in criminal trials which raises the standard of proof for prosecutors.  Are labor and employment cases going to be decided by jurors who don't feel comfortable without science in the equation or wonder things like, "If the boss kept saying stuff like that, why didn't she just record it with her cell phone?"

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