Police officers do not give the involved parties a copy of the police report at the scene of an accident, but instead will provide the parties a police report number. Several days after the accident, a person can go to the police department and get a copy of the police report using the report number. When you hire a Louisville injury attorney, they can obtain a copy of the police report through a system called BuyCrash or some other similar system.
A person cannot make a claim against an insurance company for a personal injury claim without a copy of the police report, so obtaining your Louisville police report is vital to moving forward with your claim.
Process of Obtaining a Police Report in Louisville
To obtain a police report, the individual will need the code number that correlates with their collision and the investigation of the collision. They will need that number, the date of the injury, the names of the people involved, where the injury occurred, and if possible, the name of the reporting officer.
A Louisville personal injury lawyer can contact third party vendors such as BuyCrash so the injured party does not have to visit the courthouse and wait for the police report. The lawyer can get the report very quickly and have it emailed to them.
Other problems arise when there is a fatality or serious injury. If this occurs, the police will have conducted an accident reconstruction and in those cases, the attorneys are at the mercy of the reconstruction team to get the report done. Regardless, the attorney will be able to get the final report before the injured party does. It takes time for the reconstruction experts to complete all of the evaluations and calculations and that can extend the process.
Purpose of a Police Report
The police report has a lot of information on it including the names of all the people involved in the collision, the types of vehicles involved in the accident, and the amount of property damage the police officer subjectively believes occurred to each vehicle.
The police officer typically puts the person he or she believes to be at-fault as car number one on the report. Those who are not at-fault have subsequent car numbers two and three. Witnesses can also be listed on the police report which may include their addresses and telephone numbers.
The report will also include whether or not the drivers had insurance. It has the exact time, date, and location of the collision. There should be insurance information for each of the cars involved. The police report an important part of the initial stages of proceeding with a Kentucky car accident.
