is the accident report a legal document?

[James1964]

What is the name of your state? Alaska

If the state police accident report a legal document, or is it merely the opinion of the officer who wrote it? If he says, "it appears that vehicle A was over the centerline" and I disagree, can I take him to court to challenge that, if he refuses to change the report?

 

[CdwJava]

What is the name of your state? Alaska

If the state police accident report a legal document, or is it merely the opinion of the officer who wrote it? If he says, "it appears that vehicle A was over the centerline" and I disagree, can I take him to court to challenge that, if he refuses to change the report?

It is NOT a legal document. If fault becomes an issue in a civil case, one side or the other can call upon the officer to testify as to his expertise and opinion. But, since insurance companies and civil courts march to the tune of their own drummers, the police report is rarely useful as anything but a supporting document for information on the parties, and maybe to support a citation to one of the parties.

If the officer refuses to change it - so what? If you are charged criminally on the case, your attorney can refute the determination in court. If it goes to a civil court, chances are he will never be heard from.

I have written more than 500 collision reports and have only been subpoeaned only once for a traffic collision case ... and I didn't even have to testify! It was easy time and a half reading a book in the officer's waiting area of the courthouse.


- Carl

 

[LawGirl10]

This is why I never gave my opinion on crash reports. We were trained not to give opinions unless we were a reconstructionist.

 

[CdwJava]

This is why I never gave my opinion on crash reports. We were trained not to give opinions unless we were a reconstructionist.

California's collision reporting system (aka SWITRS) requires us to provide for "opinions and conclusions" in most (but not all) collisions. It is different from the way we are taught to write crime reports ... which is odd as the Investigative Format collision report is often the document submitted for prosecution in collision related crimes.

- Carl

 

[LawGirl10]

California's collision reporting system (aka SWITRS) requires us to provide for "opinions and conclusions" in most (but not all) collisions. It is different from the way we are taught to write crime reports ... which is odd as the Investigative Format collision report is often the document submitted for prosecution in collision related crimes.

- Carl

I'm glad we didn't have to do that.