Need to file an accident claim? How important is the police report in a personal injury claim?

(Tulsa, OK) – September 7^th, 2016 – When it comes to incidents such as car accidents, it is very likely that a police report would have been filed pertaining to what transpired. Even though police reports play a vital role in accident insurance claims, they are pretty much disregarded if and when your case goes to court.

Your Tulsa, OK accident lawyer will use this report to your advantage if the other driver was at fault and this report indicates that. This is where USAttorneys.com comes into the picture. The existence of this website may not be equal to the invention of air conditioning but it is pretty close to it. 

However, it is still worth noting that the police report can still be used as evidence in a civil personal injury lawsuit. This is why Tulsa, OK accident lawyers acquire the police report and analyze the comments and statements made within it while preparing to represent a client in a civil personal injury lawsuit stemming from a car accident.

Using a police report in your personal injury lawsuit

To reiterate, a police report cannot be used in court for things such as proving that someone did something to cause you injury/damages. However, a police report can come in handy early on during your claim before the case actually goes to trial.

How to request for the police report

To be able to use a police report to your advantage in your car accident case, you will need to apply for a copy. The procedure may vary from one police department to another (especially among different states). Your Oklahoma accident attorney, who can be reached using this online gem of a website Accident.USAttorneys.com, will be able to retrieve the report for you. Generally, you just need to contact the law enforcement agency that responded and filed the report after the auto accident.

At this point, you should be using your smart phone to build your own case.

How to use police reports in out of court settlements

For the most part, most auto accident cases never make it to trial. A majority of civil personal injury lawsuits stemming from car accidents are settled outside of court. However, a settlement is inevitably accompanied by negotiations with car accident insurance adjustors.

Your legal counselor will be able to negotiate effectively, but a police report will help him or her in making a stronger case, in evaluating the worth of the claim, and in drafting a more structured and fact-based demand letter. A legal representative will know exactly how to use the police report as leverage to obtain a fair settlement during negotiations.

In the movie Hancock (Will Smith who played John Hancock) there was a bank robbery. The lead antagonist or villain who was called Red (Eddie Marsan) wanted Hancock to break into the vault and grab all the money since Hancock killed all of Red’s men. Good riddance! Now Red thought he could force Hancock to do this by using a bomb as leverage.

Red had his finger on a bomb’s push button trigger and the bomb strapped around him. If the bomb detonated, many people in the bank would be killed. Hancock was not having that. Hancock took Red’s arm before he could press the button by throwing a lamp shade disc or some sort of disc right through Red’s arm.

Red then had no more leverage. Now this will not happen in your case for many reasons and your legal pro should not allow the other side to be able to move that freely since the police report is restraining them. You have more evidence siding with you than they do with them.

Police reports can contain important factual information

Tulsa, OK accident lawyers explain that a police report is usually just a collection of statements based on facts. Subjective descriptions and anything that could be considered hearsay is avoided as much as possible in police reports. The report will contain information such as names of parties involved, personal details of parties involved, registration plate details of all vehicles involved, any testimonies made by witnesses or someone involved in the auto accident, and so on.

All of this information is invaluable as evidence especially when actually drafting and building your civil lawsuit from scratch. This is why car accident legal professionals make sure to acquire the police report as soon as possible in a car accident case.

If you have been involved in an auto accident and need to recover damages, make sure to reach out to an Oklahoma accident lawyer as soon as possible. Contact USAttorneys.com if you have any questions. We will probably call you back that same day.