Being in a car accident is always a traumatic experience for the victims, even if their physical injuries are not as severe as they can be. Irrespective of the accident’s severity, there are certain steps that must be taken on the victim’s part to boost their chances of getting the compensation they deserve later.
One of those steps is obtaining a police report soon after the car accident. Stay with us as we discuss the process while keeping the various factors in mind.
Ensure that the Accident is Reported As Soon As Possible
Every car accident will lead to a police report, provided that the accident was reported in the first place. It does not much matter who made the call, as long as a call to emergency services was made, there will be a police report about the accident.
Even if nobody called emergency services but the victim managed to reach a hospital, the hospital will call the police. If one or more people died in the accident, that too will inevitably have an associated police report. In rare cases, the victim may consider their injuries to be minor at the time and decide it is unnecessary to report the crash to the police.
If a car accident remains unreported, it should be remedied as quickly as possible because it will make it difficult for the victim to claim on their car insurance coverage. If you are not seriously injured, stay on the scene, wait for the officers, give them the bare facts of the case, and refrain from going into any details, allegations, or admittances at all. It can be beneficial later to give the police your perspective as objectively as possible.
Note that you are not required to answer any question about the accident without consulting your vehicle accident lawyer first. Get the police report number from the officers before leaving the scene. If they are unable to provide you with a report number before you leave, you can ask for their names and batch numbers, so that you can contact the department later and get a copy of that report.
Obtaining a Copy of the Police Report: The Process
Contact the insurance provider first to find out if they have already procured a copy of the police report. If they have, that can potentially help you avoid a lot of hassle. If that is not an option, then the party will need to contact the police directly to receive a copy of the auto accident report.
The victim or someone on their behalf can contact one of the officers to get an update on the police report and when it will be ready to collect. The process may take anything between a few days to a few weeks, but once it is ready, the party should be able to pick up a copy of the police report at any time after. There are three ways to get a car accident report directly from the police:
- Direct pickup
- Receiving a mailed report
- Receiving an online report
If the attending officers were able to provide a report number, the party should be able to get the same information and the police report from the accident location’s traffic division or website. In case the victim passed away, or if they were not in a state to talk with the responding officers at the time, the party will need to either visit the police station or the traffic subdivision nearest to the accident location.
If they don’t have specific information like the responding officers’ batch numbers, names, or the police report number, the party will need to provide other information to the station. Information such as the time, location, car model, owner’s name, plate number, etc. will help them in finding and then procuring a copy of the accident’s police report.
Can Your Car Accident Attorney Help You with Matters Regarding the Police Report?
Your car accident injury lawyer will guide you through every step of the process. They will also take steps to expedite the entire drafting and procurement process. Just in case you don’t have a road accident lawyer working with you on the case yet, contact Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys.
The lawyers at Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys can help guide you through the claims process and obtain the police report for you. Remember that a consultation with Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys is free, and if they take the case, Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys will also not charge any fees before winning the compensation that you deserve.
How Important is it for You to Obtain the Police Report?
This is a very important question as the importance of a police report is highly unpredictable. A police report usually provides many key facts relating to the incident. A police report will help the parties establish who was at fault for the crash. A word of caution though, a police report is not always accurate. Many times a police report will contain errors that may shed new light on who was at fault for a crash. If you were found at fault on a police report you may still have a case. Contact Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys to analyze the police report in your case if you every question the accuracy of the police report.
In most cases, the prosecuting and defending automobile accident lawyers play big roles in deciding whether the police report will be admitted as evidence by the court or not. It may all depend on which lawyer can argue their case for or against the police report’s admissibility the best. Even if the police report does not come before the jury, it is still an important piece of data in your case. Contact Karns & Karns Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys to obtain the police report from you case.