So we just finished the Christmas season here in the New Orleans area and we got a number of calls during the season and with Mardi Gras coming up, we're expecting to get a few more just like this.
Hi, my name's Loyd Bourgeois, I'm a personal injury attorney in the New Orleans metro area. We have offices in Metairie and Luling.
And the question we get is, "Hey, I was involved in a crash, but the police never came, it was too busy. What should I do?"
And our response is, typically, "Look, you got to get some information."
Information that is most important:
- The driver of the other vehicle's name,
- make and model of their car. If you can get their
- license plate number, great,
- copy of their insurance."
But with our smartphones today, you can take pictures of all this. Take a picture of their driver's license, front and back. Take a picture of their registration if they'll allow you. Take a picture of their insurance card. Those are the most important things to get.
You also want to take some pictures of your damages, you want to take notes of where the crash occurred, where the incident occurred, the day, and the time.
If you can get some notes about the weather or whatnot that played any factor in it, great. If not, it's not a big deal.
But without a doubt, you need to get the informational pieces that we would need in case you are injured, in case you do need to make a claim against another party. And again, that's the date of the crash, the name of the other driver, make and model of their vehicle, and their insurance company. If they'll allow you to take pictures of the driver's license, insurance card, license plate, and registration, that will at least allow us to get started.
Now, yes, of course, it's best that the police come out and can make a report. You have an unbiased witness writing down what happened, taking witness statements. But we understand that's not always possible.
But just because police don't come out does not mean you don't have a claim, does not mean you can't move forward if you were injured.
Again, my name's Loyd Bourgeois. If You have any further questions, if you were involved in a crash where police didn't come out, then you just have some basic information, don't know where to turn, give us a call.
