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The D.C. Area’s Premier Personal Injury Law Firm

I was recently in a serious Fairfax car accident, and when I saw a copy of the police report, I noticed that some of the facts and accounts were wrong. Can I do something about this?

Being involved in a serious car accident is a traumatic event. On top of the injuries you have suffered, you also have to focus on the logistics of repairing or replacing your car, paying for your medical bills, and supporting your household if you are absent from work.

You depend on the reports of first responders to help the insurance companies determine what happened, who is at fault, and what you are owed. If the police report does not contain an accurate description, your claim may be at risk, which could affect you for the rest of your life.

Just because the police report contains errors does not mean that you are completely helpless. Errors of fact, such as your license plate number or the color of your car, are fairly easy to amend. Essentially, all you are responsible for is to provide proof of the correct information. You can accomplish this by contacting the police department and the officer who filed the report and providing her with your vehicle’s registration, insurance policy information, or any other type of documentation you may need. Typically, an addendum will be attached, or the error will be corrected on the actual report.

Errors involving a disputed fact are a little more challenging to fix. This means that what you are contesting is not able to be easily proved, such as a witness report. While you will probably not be able to get a particularly one-sided report changed or removed, you may still be able to write your own version of what happened during the accident and ask to have this attached to or included in the report, as well.

While feeling as though you were misrepresented in a police report following your Fairfax auto accident may be very overwhelming, you are not alone. The Washington, D.C.-area car accident attorneys at Lewis & Tompkins are here to make sure that your story is heard by the insurance companies. Contact us online or call us at 202-296-0666 to talk today.