By Omid Rejali, Esq.

In my experience I have seen many cases where a party has been placed at fault without justification. Often at the scene of the collision, especially if there is no independent witness, the police officer goes off of what you and the other driver tells them to make a determination of fault. There are many other factors into determining who is at fault that the officers usually do not take into account. Here’s what you should do immediately if you have reviewed the police report and, you believe you have been unjustifiably placed at fault.

1) File A Supplemental Explanation

If after review of the police report, you find that the police officer has made any mistake when he or she was writing down the information as you were providing it to him or her, you want to make sure that you correct any inconsistencies right away. You can do this by writing a letter to the California Highway Patrol or the agency involved and requesting that the information be attached to the police report.

2) Take Photos of The Entire Scene

This is extremely important. If you did not get a chance to take photos on the date of the collision, you want to go back and take those photos. Ideally, you want to take photos of the entire route you took that day. You want to take these photos as close as possible to the date of the collision to make sure the area is substantially same or similar as it was when the collision happened.

3) Do Not Provide Any Information to the At Fault Party’s Insurance

You likely will get a phone call from the at fault party’s insurance company to speak to you about how the incident took place. You do not want to speak with them. This is because any information you provide them will potentially be used against you. You have to remember, the insurance company for the at-fault party is not there to protect you, they want to protect their own insured. So, providing them any information would likely be used against you later on.

4) Get an Accident Reconstruction st Expert As Soon As Possible

Accident re constructionist experts are usually engineers who have experience and training in recreating a collision. Having one on your side as early as possible can help you convince the third parties insurance, that even if a police officer put you at fault, based on the evidence that cannot be true.

One of the crucial pieces of information that they may be able to obtain right away from your vehicle is what they call the EDT (event data recording). This acts as the black box for your car and most vehicles these days are equipped with them. The EDT holds crucial evidence such as speed, braking, and steering wheel rotation that can assist your accident reconstruction expert in recreating the collision.

Even if you have been placed at fault for a collision, you may still be entitled to compensation for your injuries. However, you need to move quickly on these cases to make sure you preserve all of the evidence.

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope this helps you.

If you have any other questions, feel free to contact my office at 619-887-4148, send us a text message to 619-485-6313, send me an email at omid@rejalilawfirm.com or leave us a message here and we will get back to you.

Born to get you JUSTICE!