Auto Accident: How Are Police Reports Used

Automobile accidents are usually investigated by your local police or depending on jurisdiction by the state highway patrol. The officers involved in the investigation create an accident report that describes what they see and any useful information they gather from witnesses at the scene. This police report can be used by you or your attorney in investigating what the officer's think happened to cause the accident. This report is important because it creates a record of what happened that can be reliably used in court.

Law enforcement reports can be obtained by checking with any of your nearby federal, state and municipal government offices. Your lawyer should be able to get them for you as well. Some of these reports are a matter of public record and are available for a small fee. You might need to pay a fee to pay for the photocopying. Some Agencies could possibly even issue you a police report at no cost. However some reports might not be available if the matter was deemed confidential, because of the parties involved or criminal prosecution, or any other reason that would require that the information within the report to remain private. If the report is deemed confidential it can be retrieved during the discover process, which requires that an actual law suit be filed.

Other parties that may be interested in using automobile accident police reports would be Insurance companies. Insurance companies are always interested in what kind of drivers they insure and they constantly investigate insurance claims to attempt to uncover insurance fraud and to keep a record of the policy holder's automotive history. A police report is important for Insurance companies, due to how they set what happened within an accident to where it cannot be manipulated by someone else. They cannot claim that the accident was responsible for more damage than it was, allowing more safety and convenience for those involved.

What Does A Police Report Contain?
Typically the police report will contain the following information:

The date, time and place of the accident, the details of the accident, detailed description of the scene (road conditions, weather, time of day etc), the names of all parties and witnesses involved in the accident, a description of the driver, including his or her age and drivers license number, the names and addresses of all injured parties, as well as a summary of their injuries, and a description of the vehicles involved in the accident. Any other circumstances that are unique to the incident will also be filed. All are included within a police report, to insure thorough documentation of the incident that required a police report to be filed.