Is It Possible To Correct A Police Report After A Motor Vehicle Accident In Florida?
After a motor vehicle accident, one of the most crucial steps is filing a police report. After filing a police report, you should obtain a copy of the report. A copy of the police report can help support your compensation claim. It can help you prove liability. But what if the police report does not accurately describe what happened?
Police officers are only humans. They are prone to making mistakes on a police report. If the police report that was written concerning your motor vehicle accident is inaccurate, can you correct it? Under some circumstances, correcting errors on a police report is possible. And even when you cannot fix a mistake on a police report, there might be a way for you to prevent the error from negatively affecting the outcome of your case. Read on to learn more.
Changing a Police Report
The police report is one of the crucial pieces of evidence in a motor vehicle accident claim. So, you need the details in this report to be as accurate as possible. If the police report that was written concerning your accident is inaccurate and the error is factual, you may be able to get the error fixed. A factual error is something like having the wrong time of day or the car model. Changing a factual error is usually simple if you have documentation to prove the mistake on the police report. For example, you can use the pictures and videos you took at the accident scene to show that the time of the day captured in the police report is inaccurate. To fix a factual error on a police report, you can call the police department or the individual officer and ask them to fix the mistake. You are not allowed to alter a police report by yourself.
It is challenging to correct non-factual mistakes on a police report. An example of a non-factual error on a police report is something like a witness statement. If you disagree with an account given by a witness, changing the police report might be impossible. However, this does not mean you don’t have options. If, for instance, you do not agree with an account given by a witness, you can write your own account and request that it be submitted together with the police report. Unfortunately, it is not guaranteed that your written account will be submitted together with the police report.
If you cannot alter the police report or have your own version of events submitted together with the report, you have the option of keeping the report out of evidence during your case. If you can show the police report is unreliable, you may be able to keep it out of evidence. However, in some cases, keeping a police report out of evidence might not be possible. That is why having an accurate police report is quite crucial. An attorney can help you rectify the situation if the police report that was written concerning your accident is inaccurate.
Contact a Delray Beach Car Accident Lawyer
If you have a pending car accident claim, talk to our Delray Beach car accident lawyers at Lyons & Snyder.
Source:
leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0300-0399/0316/Sections/0316.066.html
