You can get a police report after a car accident in Indiana by working with state representatives and paying a small fee. Why, though, should you request access to your police report, and what information does it include?
Police reports allow you to better understand what negligence led to your losses and what parties may be liable for your accident. In other words, requesting a police report gives you more evidence to build a possible civil case on. You can work with Vaughan & Vaughan’s car accident attorneys in Indiana to transform a police report into civil action today.
Aren’t Police Reports Part of Indiana’s Public Record?
You can generally find police incident and accident reports in Indiana’s public records. That said, different counties throughout the state have different policies as to how the average person can access information about a crash. While you could browse the general archive to try and find the report you need, it’s often faster to go through official channels to secure your paperwork.
Why Should You Request a Police Report?
You aren’t obligated to request a police report after a car accident. Doing so, however, can help you decide how you want to move forward. Police reports contain a lot of information about your recent accident, including the following:
- The date, time, and location of the accident
- Each driver’s name, license plate number, address, and insurance information
- Descriptions of the injuries sustained by relevant parties
- Descriptions of all vehicles involved
- Relevant weather and road conditions
- A diagram of the accident
- Information about the nature of the accident
- Statements from drivers and bystanders
Most importantly, a police report contains the precinct’s assessment of accident fault. You can refer back to a police report to determine whether or not you may have the right to hold another party accountable for any losses you endured in a car crash. The report will also note whether or not any parties involved in the accident received a ticket for criminal roadway misconduct.
What’s the Difference Between Crash Reports and Police Reports?
You have a legal obligation to file a crash report with your insurance provider within ten days of your initial accident. The crash report you file can contain much of the same information that a police report does. However, a crash report specifically helps your insurance provider determine how much compensation you may receive for your losses through your existing coverage.
Comparatively, a police report makes no statements regarding what compensation you or any other injured parties may deserve. The report does, however, include a precinct’s opinions on the distribution of fault in the accident. You can use that opinion to help establish your case for compensation from the party responsible for your crash.
How Can You Request Access to a Car Accident Police Report?
There are a few different ways to secure a car accident police report. That said, the means through which you secure your report varies depending on where you are in the Hoosier state. Some counties require accident survivors to work with their county’s Sheriff’s Department Records Division to request their post-accident paperwork.
Indiana also encourages you to go through Holt Sheets in Greenwood to secure a police report from the state.
That said, you can most often access your car accident’s police report through BuyCrash. BuyCrash allows Indiana residents to purchase the police report detailing the nature of a recent accident for no more than $12. You can access your report courtesy of the platform’s in-site search engine, make your purchase, and then download the report as a PDF.
What Information do Platforms Like BuyCrash Want from You?
BuyCrash does require you to make a profile on its site before it allows you to download a PDF of your police report. The platform also requires you to have the following information on hand before it provides you with the correct accident report:
- The name of at least one driver involved in your accident
- The accident’s report number
- The city, county, and state in which the accident took place
- The date of the accident
- Your name, address, phone number, and email address
- The name of the law enforcement agency that responded to your accident
If you don’t know where to find key pieces of information, including your accident report number or the name of the agency that specifically responded to your accident, don’t panic. Indiana car accident attorneys can gather this information for you.
How Long Can It Take to Get a Police Report?
If you choose to secure your police report through BuyCrash, you gain access to that report immediately upon paying the platform’s fee and downloading your PDF. That said, you need to wait for a police department to complete and file your report before you can download it. Most departments take up to five business days to get your report online or stored in their files.
BuyCrash then allows you to gain immediate access to the PDF of your accident’s police report.
Should you not find a report detailing your crash through BuyCrash, you may have to go through the police department that responded to your accident to get your paperwork. It can take these departments a considerable amount of time to get back to you with a copy of your report, and they may have stipulations you need to agree to before allowing you to see your paperwork.
Fortunately, you can call on a car accident attorney in Indiana to help you communicate with an applicable police department and get the paperwork you need to investigate the negligence that led to your crash.
Talk to an Indiana Attorney About Your Car Accident ASAP
Indiana makes the process of requesting and securing a car accident police report relatively straightforward. If you’re busy recovering from car accident injuries or don’t know how to interpret the data presented in your car accident claim, having an attorney on hand can simplify the process.
Fortunately, Vaughan & Vaughan can connect you with an Indiana car accident lawyer who can help you transform that data in a police report into an actionable civil claim. You can request a consultation with our attorneys courtesy of Vaughan & Vaughan’s contact form or by calling our representatives. We’re ready to help you demand car accident damages from a liable party.
