It is important after a car accident to take care of the evidence you have. Store all of your documentation, photos, and video evidence safely, deliver it to your lawyer for safekeeping, and do not throw out any communications or emails from your insurance carrier, the other driver, or their insurance company. But what about your car itself?
It generally is not feasible to keep your damaged car in the condition it was in after the crash or to preserve the damaged vehicle as evidence for your case. You also aren’t going to be able to bring the broken car into the courtroom to show it to the jury. Instead, all evidence about your car will be presented to the court as pictures, videos, and documentation about the damage. You are often free to get your car repaired or replaced, just make sure all repairs and damage are documented by your lawyers and auto repair professionals first.
Call our Philadelphia car accident attorneys at The Reiff Law Firm by dialing (215) 709-6940 for a free case evaluation.
Do You Need to Keep Your Car in Post-Crash Condition as Evidence?
After an accident, your goal is to get better: treat your injuries, recover mentally and physically, get your car repaired or replaced, and get back to your normal life. But we are also told all the time to preserve evidence for trial, and you might have even gotten letters from insurance companies or the other driver’s lawyers telling you to preserve evidence. So do you need to keep your car damaged ahead of the lawsuit?
Generally, you are free to repair your car after a crash, but it is important to collect evidence about the car and the damage to it before it gets fixed. The same is true when it comes to the accident scene, your injuries, and any other damages. You cannot expect the police to leave your bumper in the middle of the road while you send a photographer to take pictures of the crash scene; things need to be cleaned up and put back in working order. You need to get your injuries treated, and you need to get your car repaired, so there is no expectation that you would leave things broken just to use them as evidence in your case.
Another factor that can help reassure you that it’s okay to get your car repaired is the fact that you cannot bring your car to court as evidence. It’s not going to be feasible to bring your broken car into court to show the jury the damage – and most courts are not going to allow the jury to go outside to look at the vehicle damage, either. Instead, you will save proof of the damage and bring it to court in other forms.
The only time that you absolutely must leave the car in its damaged condition is if there is a court order telling you to do so, though this is quite rare. Courts know you need to get back to driving around for errands or commuting to work, and they usually will not hold you up with a disabled or dangerous vehicle.
How To Collect Evidence of Vehicle Damage for a Pennsylvania Car Accident Case
Instead of preserving the car itself in its damaged state, our Conshohocken, PA car accident lawyers recommend preserving evidence in the following forms, all of which are also easier to bring into court and submit to a judge and jury as part of your case:
Photos
Taking photos of the car accident scene and vehicle damage is one of the best ways to preserve evidence. Anyone can take pictures, so if you had to go straight to the hospital after a crash, perhaps your friend or family member can take photos for you.
When taking photos of vehicle damage, make sure to get both close-up shots of damage as well as wider shots that show that specific dent or damage in the context of where it is on the car and where it is in relation to other damage. Also try to light the pictures well so that flashes do not reflect and wash out the whole image.
Videos
In the same way that you can take photos of the vehicle damage, getting a few videos touring the damage might be helpful as well. A video can help fill in the gaps between photos and help someone looking through the photos understand where the photos fit in the greater context of the car. Simple cell phone video is often adequate.
You might also have video of the damage happening if you have a dashcam or someone else’s dashcam or stationary camera (e.g., a nearby doorbell camera or security camera) captured the accident on video. You can ask the owner of the footage to preserve this for trial and send you or your lawyer a copy.
Appraisals
One of the biggest reasons you need proof of the damage to your car is so that you can get the repair costs reimbursed. Auto body shops and insurance companies do appraisals to assess the damage, take notes of the severity and location of the damage, and estimate the cost to repair the damage. A professional assessment and appraisal of the damage should note many of the details needed to get your claim paid at the full value, and your insurance company will typically require an appraisal before any work starts on the car.
Appraisals are, however, limited. They usually aim to neutrally assess the car’s damage without implying anything about how the crash happened or who was at fault, so appraisals are not usually good evidence of fault.
Accident Reconstruction Expert Evaluations and Reports
Instead, a car might be examined by an accident reconstruction expert who can use what they observe to make scientific claims about how the accident occurred and who was at fault in the crash. Most of the time, accident reconstruction experts work off of photos of the damage to both vehicles and photos of the evidence scene. However, if we can get a chance for the expert to examine the vehicle itself before repairs are made, this might help with their assessment.
An expert can testify in court as to what they examined and submit expert reports to the court.
Call Our Pennsylvania Car Accident Lawyers Today
If you were hurt in a car crash, call our car accident attorneys in Philadelphia at The Reiff Law Firm at (215) 709-6940.
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