How to Report a Car Accident That Wasn’t Your Fault

One of the Questions We Get a Lot Is – How Do I Report a Car Accident That Wasn’t My Fault?

As experienced car accident lawyers helping people who were seriously hurt in car accidents in the Washington, D.C. area, we have a lot of advice and strategies for our clients.

First, and we emphasize this with everyone – get the medical treatment and care you need right away. That should be your first priority. If you are rushed to the hospital for surgery after a car accident, don’t worry about getting all of the details and info from the driver that hit you, the police and the witnesses. We can get that for you later – focus on your injuries and getting the emergency medical care you need for your injuries. We have a lot of information on what to do after a car accident in the DMV, but here are the basics on reporting the claim.

Once You’ve Had the Paramedics and the Emergency Room Doctors and Nurses Take Care of You, Here’s How You Report the Car Accident:

• If you have the other driver’s insurance information (they should have an insurance card you can take a picture of that has the name and contact info for their insurance company) call them and report the car accident. We can do this for you if you are still in the hospital or can’t do this because of your injuries.
• You should always get the contact info for the driver who hit you in D.C., Maryland or Virginia. You may have to call him if you didn’t get the insurance info at the scene of the car accident or later. Again, contacting the other driver is something we do for you.
• Request the police report – every police department has a procedure or form for getting a copy of the traffic accident police report. If the police officer came to see you at the hospital to find out how the car accident happened, he or she should give you a card with his or her name and contact information plus usually a report number. In most cases, the police report takes about 5-7 days to complete.

Don’t Give the Other Driver’s Insurance Company a Recorded Statement Until You’ve Talked to an Experienced Car Accident Lawyer.

There are a lot of reasons for this – most people with a serious injury after a car accident are on pain medications, worried about their job, their medical bills, their injuries. And in a lot of pain.

It’s not a good time to be giving a statement to an experienced insurance adjuster who is trying to use that to deny or limit the amount of your settlement. Remember, these insurance adjusters have years of training and experience and have taken thousands of statements.

You will have plenty of time to deal with the legal and insurance issues from your car accident while you are recovering from your injuries. Plus, that’s what we do – take away the stress, uncertainty, and anxiety of the process, so you can focus on getting better.

You’ve done the research on hiring the best lawyer for your car accident case, and Donahoe Kearney is here to help. Call us today at (202) 393-3320 for a free, confidential, no-obligation consultation and strategy session on what you need to do next. Or you can book a same day call here.

You’ll come away with a plan for your car accident case plus a copy of our book that explains the process of car accident cases, The Ultimate Guide to Accident Cases in the DMV.