The metadata on accident-scene photographs and an ambulance report helped Steinger Iscoe & Greene attorneys Alfred Bell Jr., Timothy Vannatta and Sean Greene piece together an argument that won more than $1 million for a client who tripped over a garden hose.

And they could receive another $1.5 million after the trial court granted the plaintiff's motion to determine entitlement to attorney fees.

The case hinged on the smallest details — descriptive data that showed several properties of electronic files, including the creation date and time of several photographs used to bolster the plaintiff's claims. It turned on the attorneys' ability to prove their client's contention that a maintenance company's negligence caused a fall that created years of hardship.