Why You Can Still Hold A Motorist Liable For An Accident Even If The Police Report Seemed To Clear Them

After a car accident, the insurance adjusters are likely to rely on the police report to assign fault to the parties involved in the accident. However, this doesn't mean that the person at fault in the police report is definitely the person to blame. If you have the evidence, you can still hold the other motorist responsible for your injuries even if the police cleared them. Here are three forms of evidence that can help you do this:

Contradictory Evidence

The first option is to present contradictory evidence to prove that the police's assertions were wrong. You need strong evidence for this because the usual assumption is that the police report is accurate. Therefore, your contradictory evidence needs to be watertight if it is to convince anybody that the police report is inaccurate.

Consider an example where the police report claims that the accident occurred because your headlamps were out and you couldn't see where you were going. In such a case, you will have strong contradictory evidence in your hands if you can find a video that shows your headlights on just before the accident. The good news is that you can amend the police report if you can offer irrefutable evidence to the contrary.

Supplementary Evidence

The second option is to find evidence that supplements the existing police report. This may actually be easy to do than to contradict the police report because the officers that took the report don't have to defend their position. This supplementary evidence should build on the existing evidence to give it new meaning.

Suppose the police did not find fault with the other driver because the accident occurred on a snow-covered road and the police believe the snow was the cause of the crash. Evidence that shows the other driver's car did not have efficient brakes can build on the officer's findings to give new light as to the cause of the accident. In this case, you can claim that even though the road was covered with snow, the driver could have stopped had they had proper brakes.

New Evidence

The last option is to come up with new evidence that doesn't contradict or supplement anything in the police report. An accident investigator, for example, can unearth new evidence that wasn't apparent to the police who arrived at the scene of the accident soon after it occurred. For example, the investigation can reveal that the driver was intoxicated with prescription drugs at the time of the accident. That way you may be able to hold the other driver responsible for the crash.

To get help with your case, contact an auto accident attorney.

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