After a car accident, do everything possible to document an accident so you can recover from an insurance company or another party if you are not at fault. Have a police report written up at the scene. After an accident, you may be injured and taken to the hospital. A police report helps you in finding out the names and addresses of the responsible parties.
A police report is also a public record that is an exception to the hearsay rule. Hearsay is an out of court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Police reports are admissible evidence. Because people's memories and road conditions fade or change, a police report may be credible evidence at trial or settlement discussions. Police reports document what occurred a few moments after an accident. However, police reports are not business records because the persons interviewed do not have an obligation to make the reports.
The police report may even help in assigning liability if the police officer specifies a party violated the vehicle code. Even if there is no citation issued for a violation, the officer indicates the accident occurred because of the carelessness of one side. This information helps in settling a case, especially when there are pressing expenses that cannot be paid because of the lost income of a loved one or the inability of a deceased to care or protect the survivors. This may prevent the need for an accident victim to file bankruptcy. Filing bankruptcy will ruin a person's credit, though the damage is already done each time a bill is paid late.
Read up on the PA vehicle code after an accident. The party at fault or its insurance company may try to put the blame at the accident victim by misinterpreting the vehicle code, or saying that they have a witness who saw things differently.
If after the accident, an officer makes a negative comment in a police report about the accident victim or does not include something, find the officer and ask the officer to say for sure who is at fault, or state that the officer cannot tell clearly who is at fault if that is the situation. Be prepared that the police officer may go by the report. The police officer may do so many reports that he or she does not remember one accident from the other. If this is so, note the date and time when speaking with the officer so if another party says the accident victim is liable for the accident because of the officer's negative comment, the accident victim can say the officer already discussed about it and the officer declined to say specifically who was at fault.
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