Very often our clients are involved in serious auto accidents where police are at the scene and prepare an accident report.  Though it is not often that the complete police report can be obtained right away, the question everyone wants to know the answer to immediately, is what will the police report say and will it help us or hurt us.  Even though police reports are clearly helpful in determining fault for the collision, they are not always dispositive of the issue.  Nevertheless getting your hands on a copy of one as soon as possible is important.

In serious injury cases people are often taken away from the scene by paramedics and the injured party is unable to obtain accident information, as that is probably the last thing on his or her mind at that point.  Police officers usually try to either visit or call these parties at the hospital or at home later to get their version of the facts.  It is therefore imperative that the police-obtained information is received as soon as possible, as without it the person or their attorney cannot begin presenting the claim to the at-fault party or their insurance company.   The only drawback is that if the accident occurred in Los Angeles, obtaining a report from the Los Angeles Police Department could take two to four months due to their overloaded records department.  Even though the officers often provide parties with a Traffic Collision Information card containing the basic information of the adverse party (such as their name, address, telephone number, vehicle description and insurance information), the card has no information about the facts of the collision.  Statements of the parties and witnesses, diagrams, measurements, descriptions of damages and physical evidence, vehicle code violations and any potential citations and arrests made at the scene, will only be listed in the final version of the police report itself.

Conclusions made by the police officer in the police report as to fault are inadmissible at the time of trial as they are basically hearsay.  So just because the report is against you, does not mean you have no case.  Insurance companies often do reject the conclusions made in police reports if additional information is presented to discredit such conclusions.  Though these conclusions may be helpful indications as to who is at fault and whether one has a good claim or not, there are numerous situations where the officers conclusions are erroneous.  First they may have done a shoddy job of collecting the evidence.  Secondly, they have been known to mix up various facts such as directions of travel and location of the point of impact and even the statements made by the parties or witnesses at the scene.  Third there are instances where they just could not communicate with a party or a witness due to language barriers or because the party was in no condition to provide testimony at the time.

If the collision involved substantial injuries, the officer may be nice enough to forward the report to the injured party directly if he or she is asked nicely and usually if the officer believes the injury involved is real or serious requiring quick release of the information in the report.  Not only does that save the fee charged by all law enforcement agencies for providing a copy of the report, but also and more importantly it saves very valuable time.  That is the time your attorney could use to contact the witnesses listed in the report while the accident is fresh in their mind, contact the insurance companies and this time could help mitigate the damages resulting from the collision.  Therefore if you are injured in the accident the advice is try to obtain the name and telephone number of the investigating officer at the scene as he or she could help save valuable time.

This article was written by Vadim Liberman, an attorney who for over 20 years has been representing clients involved in auto accident injury cases. He can be reached at his law firm, Liberman Law Group at (877) 399 - 5877 toll free or at (323) 931-5577.