We receive a lot of calls asking whether you can file a claim with no police report. Somewhere throughout the years, it seems that drivers have become less educated on the need to learn laws in the State that they are driving. This may be due to the fact that people are much more likely to move from state to state these days. Some states do not require nor even encourage getting a police report after an accident. Georgia is not one of those states. So, we are going to discuss whether you can file a claim with no police report in this article.
First: Can you File a Claim with No Police Report?
Absolutely. You can file the claim. You can call your insurance company or even open an app on your phone and submit photos of the damage, complete several questions and submit your claim. The only limitations to “submitting” the claim are:
- You must have coverage in place at the time of the accident by the insurance company or they may refuse to accept the claim initially.
- You must be a policy holder on the policy to actually file a claim.
Will You Receive Benefits If You File a Claim with No Police Report?
That depends on the evidence you have, the party at fault and which insurance company to whom you are submitting. The police are there to do a few things:
- Report as an objective point of view as to the facts of the accident
- Gather all of the contact information from the parties including their insurance
- Determine what happened and who may have caused the accident
- Determine if any Georgia laws were broken and cite or arrest those as needed (excessive speeding, failure to yield, etc)
- Locate any witnesses that may be necessary
- Reconstruct or diagram the incident as necessary to determine paths of travel, speed, and more when those things are contested or injured parties are unable to convey the information
- Contact any emergency groups that may be needed if they have not been called in
If you do not have the police report, you will need to have a great deal of evidence to prove your claim. You will need photos and witnesses. You will need independent witnesses who may have observed the accident and can come forward and be willing to testify if necessary. Without these things, it’s going to be an uphill battle to prove your case. In fact, the insurance company may state that they cannot accept the claim without a police report.
How to Proceed If You Have a Claim With No Police Report?
The best thing to do is to contact an experienced lawyer who can do a case review. Our office does these at no cost so we can help you realize whether you will even have a case. If you do have a case, we tell you what you should do to go forward. If you want to work with us, we can explain the process.
If you would like to contact us for a review of your case, Ty is experienced in all phases from review to trial in claims involving auto accidents, bike accidents, pedestrian involved accidents and more. Contact us here for more information.
