After your car accident, if an officer from the local police department, sheriff's office, or some other law enforcement agency came to the scene, chances are a police report was generated. This report will typically record details related to the crash, including:
- the names and contact information of the parties involved (drivers, passengers)
- information on the vehicles
- car insurance coverage information
- details on the location of the accident, weather, road conditions, traffic signals, signage, etc.
- a diagram of the accident scene and a summary of the facts of the accident
- statements made by the parties involved in the accident, and
- names, contact information, and statements of any witnesses to the accident.
Even though police reports are not generally admissible in court, these reports still serve as a valuable tool in determining who was at fault for the car accident (especially when it's time for the car insurance companies to talk settlement). Learn more about how police reports are used in a car accident claim.
But what if the police report is not entirely accurate? If you think the report contains a mistake, or if you disagree with or want to dispute the information contained in it, there are sometimes ways to remedy those errors.
Factual Errors
Occasionally, a police report may contain factual errors or mistakes involving objective information. Factual errors might include, among other possibilities:
- the misspelling of driver/passenger/witness names
- driver's license or insurance status of one of the drivers
- the incorrect make or model of a vehicle involved
- the wrong insurance company name or policy number, or
- an inaccurate description of the location of the accident.
These types of factual errors are easily corrected since they are based on objective information that can be clearly proved or disproved. To correct a factual error, you usually need only provide proof of the correct information, often in the form of your vehicle registration, driver’s license or insurance information, etc. to the law enforcement agency that responded to the scene and prepared the report.
Upon receipt of the proper documentation, the agency can either correct the original report or, more likely, attach an addendum to the original explaining and correcting the factual error.
Transcription Errors
These errors can take two forms. The first is when there is a discrepancy between what was told to the police officer and what her report indicates she was told. For example, you said the other driver appeared to be going 50 miles per hour in the 30 MPH zone and the report says you told the officer the other driver appeared to be going 40 MPH.
The second type of transcription error occurs when you tell the police officer something you believe to be significant, but for some reason it's not included in the report. For example, you may have told the police officer at the scene that your neck and shoulder were very stiff and sore, but the report makes no mention of this. The omission of this statement in the report can become important later on when you bring a car accident lawsuit and want to corroborate the claims you made about your car accident injuries at the accident scene.
Disputed Facts
When a police report, from your point of view at least, contains an error related to disputable or subjective information, that kind of "error" is probably going to be lot harder to "correct."
Errors of disputed facts typically involve disagreements about the accounts or conclusions made in the police report. For example, if you do not agree with the officer’s conclusion in the report that you were speeding at the time of the accident, you will have a difficult time having that statement changed. Likewise, if you disagree with a witness’s statement about how the accident occurred, you probably won’t be able to get that information changed.
With police reports containing transcription errors or disputed facts, your only real recourse would be to write your own statement, calling attention to the disputed information and providing your own detailed version of that same information. You can then submit that statement to the reporting law enforcement agency and hope that it is subsequently added to the report as an addendum or amendment to the original report. But keep in mind that whether to add your proposed amendment to the existing police report falls squarely within the reporting officer's discretion.
First Steps
Whether you disagree with the police report because of factual errors, transcription errors, or disputed facts, remember that police officers are human and sometimes make mistakes. If the police officer who prepared your accident report made an error, consider contacting the reporting agency and asking to speak with the responding officer. If a conversation is possible, raise your concerns about the report and request that a correction be made. Give your honest, detailed account of what you believe the report should reflect. If the officer denies your request, then it's time to write and submit your own addendum to the report and ask that it be included along with the original.
Because police reports can make or break a car accident case in some instances, it may make sense to contact an experienced car accident lawyer if you disagree with any facts or conclusions contained in the report, or if you feel that getting the police report amended is crucial to your case.