Police Reports

Many times, there will be a wealth of information about your car accident on the police report.  Most of the time, the police will only come to an accident scene if there were reported injuries.  If none, they will generally encourage the parties to “exchange information” and they won’t get involved.  The lack of a police report may be used by the opposing insurance company as evidence there was no injury at the scene.  After all, if the police did not show up, then perhaps no injuries were reported. 

If the officer at the scene asks you if you were injured, you don’t want to be brave.  The report, if any, will have no mention of injury.  If you try to make a claim later on, then the lack of a reported injury will likely be used against you.  If there is a police report, please provide it to your lawyer.  It’s going to have a lot of important information in there, including insurance information, the officer’s opinion about the responsible party.  Sometimes there is information regarding witnesses, the severity of the impact, how the accident occurred and much more. 

The officer’s opinion regarding fault is not the gospel truth about liability, but it’s helpful, and it’s one of the pieces of the puzzle that will be very helpful to your lawyer.  Sometimes you won’t have the police report.  Instead you will have a police report card that the officers give you at the scene and it will have the police report number on it.  Give that to your lawyer so they can secure the police report from the responsible agency.  Also sometimes officers take photographs at the scene of the accident and your attorney can obtain those as well.

Remember the police report is only part of the puzzle your lawyer will use to form a complete picture regarding your automobile accident.  If you have a car accident in the Santa Clarita area, including Valencia, Saugus, Newhall, Canyon Country, Castaic, Stevenson Ranch, Palmdale or Lancaster and beyond, call personal injury lawyer Robert Mansour for a candid appraisal of your injury case.