What Happens if My Accident Report Is Incorrect?

After another driver injured you in a car accident, it’s important to gather as much evidence as possible that supports the case for your compensation. One of the first documents you’ll obtain will be a police accident report highlighting critical information about the accident and what happened. While these reports do not represent a final judgment, officers are human and can still make mistakes. If the information you read in the report does not match up with what actually happened, the good news is that errors are not final. The officer can revise their report with supporting evidence.

If you have questions about your accident report, the Beaumont car accident lawyers of Portner Bond, PLLC are ready to help. With our seventy-plus years of combined experience, we’ll help you gather and interpret the evidence you need to fight insurance claim denials. Call our office today at (409) 838-4444 for a free and confidential case review.

Why Is it Important to Verify a Police Report’s Accuracy?

A police report is only one form of evidence supporting your case. However, its official nature gives it significant weight in the eyes of insurers and courts. The officer who responds to your accident must be objective, hearing accounts from all witnesses and parties to the crash and synthesizing them to form a complete picture of the events.

Toward the middle or end of the report, officers may use diagrams, customary notation, or other conventions to determine who they think is at fault. Their opinion is not legally binding like a judge’s or jury’s. Still, if their inaccurate reporting goes to an insurance company or court, it may negatively affect the outcome of your negotiations or lawsuit. If you have pressing questions about your case, don’t hesitate to contact us today.

What Errors Need Correcting in a Police Report?

Errors an officer might make when filing an accident report can be of varying severity. They may range from simple “human errors” to crucial factual inaccuracies. It is vital to ensure that your accident report is free of the following mistakes:

• Incorrect contact information, such as a mistake in your address or phone number
• Incorrect vehicle registration, driver’s license number, or make/model/color
• Incorrect insurance information, such as a policy number, for you/your vehicle
• Misstatements about the vehicles’ paths before the crash and how they collided
• Misstatements about the location of the accident, conditions on the road, or environmental conditions
• Misstatements of damage to the involved vehicles
• Misstatements of injuries you sustained as a result of the crash
• Misstatements of traffic violations committed leading up to the accident
• Omission of key factual information in the above groups of information

Note that this list is not exhaustive, and there are other types of errors you may see in an accident report. Luckily, mistakes can be simple to rectify, no matter their type.

How to Request a Correction

After your accident, the responding officer should provide you with their badge number and contact information. To request a correction of the report, all you have to do in most cases is reach out to the officer and state the nature of the correction.

You will need to give the officer evidence to support your claims, so ensure you have that information ready to send. Evidence you may need to correct the report may include, but is not limited to:

• Your driver’s license
• Your vehicle’s registration
• Your insurance card
• Dashcam footage of the accident from your vehicle/a third party
• Photographs of damage to your vehicle
• Medical documentation of your injuries
• Verbal statements supporting your claim, provided the officer agrees with them

Be honest when requesting a correction of your accident report. The officer may decline to make some changes under certain circumstances, such as if you were cited for a traffic violation or if you try to correct someone else’s account of the accident. Some material is best disputed in court, and if your corrections are inaccurate, they may harm your chances of winning compensation. Contact us today.

Contact a Motor Vehicle Accident Attorney Today

If someone else hurt you in a car accident in Beaumont, don’t let an inaccurate accident report stop you from pursuing the compensation you deserve. At Portner Bond, PLLC, our attorneys can help you gather the evidence you need to correct the report, allowing you to enter insurance negotiations or lawsuits from the best possible position. Call us today at (409) 838-4444, or contact us online for a no-obligation consultation.