Your police report may be a big help after a crash, especially if you were knocked unconscious or taken directly to the hospital. Police reports contain a lot of helpful information that your insurance company or your injury lawyer might want to see, but figuring out how to obtain a copy of the report can be confusing.
In Warner Robins, there is no clear process for receiving an accident report except to file an open records request with the City. Our lawyers can help you through the process of getting a police report, and we can help you understand whether you need a copy of the police report in your case to begin with by going over what is contained in these reports and when they are most helpful for you as an injury victim.
Call our Warner Robins car accident attorneys at Rice, Murtha & Psoras today at (410) 694-7291.
Getting a Car Accident Report from the Warner Robins Police Department
You can request a police report through an open records search by following this link to the City of Warner Robins’ records request. However, that system is not particularly straightforward and might take some time get you the report you are seeking.
P2C (police to citizen) also has a page for retrieving accident reports for Warner Robins, GA. Note, however, that while this is a .gov website, it is listed in browsers as “not secure,” and there are no links to this page from the Warner Robins PD’s website. As such, use this website or any other third-party websites at your own risk. Many external websites request payment for the report but make it hard to tell whether the report you are retrieving is a full report or a redacted copy that will ultimately be pretty unhelpful.
In any case, if you are in doubt about how to get a copy of your crash report, you can always contact the Warner Robins PD directly at their non-emergency number or visit in person to ask them about how to get a copy of your accident report. In many cases, going through a full records request is unnecessary for accident reports, as compared to police reports for other incidents and crimes.
Our Warner Robins car accident lawyers can also help you get a copy of your report if you are having any doubts about these filing systems and websites. It is part of our job as your injury attorneys to help you get all of the files, records, and evidence you need to bring a successful case, and while it is helpful for you to come to us with a copy of the report in hand, it is by no means a requirement.
Getting a Police Report from Other Offices in Warner Robins, GA
The Warner Robins PD is likely to have handled your crash if it happened in Warner Robins, GA; however, other offices might have handled the crash report in some cases.
If your accident was handled by the Sheriff’s Office, it can be confusing because Warner Robins technically crosses county lines and is situated mostly in Houston County but partly in Peach County. You can contact the Houston County Sheriff’s Office’s Records office by calling the number listed on their website. Alternatively, the Peach County Sheriff’s Office has instructions on its website for how to obtain a report in person or by emailing the Sheriff’s Office. Peach County also explains that the report will take up to 3 days to process and costs $5 if printed, with emailed reports being free.
If the accident happened elsewhere in the state, the local police department or sheriff’s office in that area might have the report. If you have trouble determining what police department handled your case, our lawyers can help you track down the report.
What is In a Police Report in Warner Robins Car Accidents?
The police report or accident report in your case will often contain information about who was involved in the crash, what happened, where the accident happened, what cars were involved, what damage resulted, and what injuries resulted. However, keep in mind that police reports are often written by officers who responded to the accident after the fact; that means that their reports are not usually based on personal observations of the crash itself.
These reports might contain details that you did not think to write down or record at the time of the accident. Police officers are experienced in writing these reports and do so day in and day out as part of their jobs. As such, their reports might contain diagrams, names, contact info, vehicle color, vehicle make, cross street names, mile markers, and other details about the accident.
Do I Need a Police Report for My Accident in Walter Robbins, GA?
Police reports are often used by insurance companies and lawyers to fill in the information needed to effectively pursue a claim. Because the report says who was involved, where it happened, and what happened, it is usually the starting point for any case, but it is not the be-all and end-all of the evidence in your case, meaning that it is not always necessary to obtain a copy yourself.
First of all, you can collect a lot of the same evidence that will be in a police report on your own. You do not need to get the other driver’s name out of your police report unless there were extenuating circumstances keeping you from simply asking the other driver their name after the crash. If you were told to leave the scene of the accident because of a fire or downed power line or because you had very serious injuries, you might have been unable to collect information and evidence, so the police report will be important.
Second, our lawyers can collect the crash report for you, meaning that you usually will not need to have a copy before coming to us. The same is true of your insurance company: they can usually get a copy of the report and do not need you to get it for them. This often means getting the report yourself is unnecessary.
Lastly, because a lot of the evidence contained in the report was not observed first-hand by the officer, it often cannot be used as evidence in a trial. This makes the report a good jumping-off point but not necessarily good evidence to use in court.
Call Our Lawyers for Help with Your Car Accident Case in Warner Robins, GA
If you were hurt in an accident, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (410) 694-7291 for your free case assessment with our Warner Robins personal injury lawyers.