With the increasing popularity of Fitbits and other wearable devices it is now possible to collect data which will demonstrate a person’s level of mobility.
Personal injury lawyers are asking their clients to wear these devices to prove that they have restricted mobility after their accident. Whether or not data from personal devices is admissible in a court proceeding has not yet been determined in Canada or in the USA. There is one case in Nova Scotia, Laushway v. Messervey (2014) N.S.J. No. 107, where the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal compelled a plaintiff to turn over his computer hard drive.
It is foreseeable that data collected from a Fitbit could be useful in a Family Law Proceeding to establish that a spouse who claimed to be unable to work because of limited mobility was in fact capable of working. We will have to wait and see how the courts deal with these types of application and whether or not this data is either compellable or admissible.
