Police tape going around a car accident scene involving a red vehicle.A police accident report is one of the first documents you will want to get your hands on when you’re looking to recover damages after a car accident. In just a few pages, these objective reports provide detailed accounts with the potential to make or break a case.

The problem is that the process for securing a copy of a car accident report often varies across states and even across cities within the same state. Police departments offer multiple avenues through which you can acquire a report, but the average person isn’t usually aware of these methods.

So let’s change that. If you’re looking to secure a police report in Lawrenceville, GA, this guide will show you all you need to get one.

Read on, and if you need more information or legal assistance with your police report or accident case, contact the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm today.

The Importance of a Car Accident Report

The main purpose an accident report serves is as an official account of the events leading up to, during, and immediately after a car accident. It is generally assumed to be objective and impartial and, as a result, is considered reliable evidence during an investigation.

Essentially, what this means is that law enforcement, insurance companies, and involved parties themselves have at their fingertips information that they can all agree on and serve as a basis to make decisions regarding how to proceed.

Conversely, without a police accident report, you are likely to be at a disadvantage against other people who do. You won’t have the ability to verify information, and your legal team will have a harder time building arguments to back your side.

Acquiring Your Lawrenceville Police Report

It’s usually a straightforward process to secure an accident report in Georgia, albeit often a daunting one for first-time claimants. Here is an overview of how the process typically goes.

Determine the Agency Involved

The first step in acquiring a police report is to identify the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the accident. In the case of Lawrenceville, this will usually mean the Lawrenceville PD, Gwinnett County PD, or the Georgia State Patrol, depending on where the accident occurred.

Here’s a quick gist of their jurisdictions:

  • Lawrenceville Police Department: LPD handles accidents that occur within city limits.
  • Gwinnett County Police Department: If an accident happens just outside Lawrenceville city limits but not on highways or state roads, the Gwinnett County Police Department.
  • Georgia State Patrol: If an accident occurs on a highway that runs through Lawrenceville itself (such as I-85), the jurisdiction will typically be with Georgia State Patrol.

Requesting Your Police Report

Police departments will usually have multiple means of requesting a police report. These methods vary depending on the city, but you can usually expect at least two different ways per department.

Making Your Request Online

All police departments in Georgia allow you to file a request online via BuyCrash. LexisNexis, which operates this service, has a contract with the state DOT to manage the Georgia accident report repository.

The great part about making an online request is that it is standardized across all of Georgia. This largely simplifies the request process no matter which law enforcement agency is in charge since they are all managed from the same online location.

The downside is that LexisNexis charges a fee for report requests, whereas you can acquire a copy for free through other means.

Making Your Request in Person

If you want to make a request for a police report in person, you will have to know the address of the law enforcement agency in charge of the accident.

  • Lawrenceville Police Department: 300 Jackson Street, Lawrenceville, GA 30046
    • Office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM except holidays.
  • Gwinnett County Police Department: Unlike the Lawrenceville Police Department, which houses its reports at a specific precinct, Gwinnett County Police Department allows claimants to file for a copy of their report at any one of seven locations.
    • 770 Hi Hope Rd, Lawrenceville, GA 30043, United States
    • 185 Ozora Road, Loganville, GA 30052
    • 3125 Satellite Blvd, Duluth, GA 30096
    • 2273 Alcovy Rd, Dacula, GA 30019
    • 2735 Mall of GA Blvd, Buford, GA 30518
    • 2180 Stone Dr, Lilburn, GA 30047
    • 6160 Crescent Dr, Norcross, GA 30071
    • Office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM except holidays.
  • Georgia State Patrol (Lawrenceville): 55 Old Peachtree Rd NE, Suwanee, GA 30024, United States
    • Office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM except holidays.

You are also allowed to phone in your request. The numbers for each agency are as follows:

  • Lawrenceville Police Department: 770-962-4173
  • Gwinnett County Police Department (Lawrenceville): 770-513-5000
  • Georgia State Patrol:678-482-2354

In most instances, you do not have to pay a fee for a car accident report if you request your copy in person; that is, assuming you are a party involved in the accident or are representing a person involved in the accident.

When opting to visit a police station in person, bring valid identification and other relevant documents so as to ensure your visit bears fruit. Also, make sure to bring your case number given by the responding police officer at the scene of the crash.

Mail-in Requests

While not explicitly advertised on online channels, the Lawrenceville Police Department and Gwinnett County Police Department do accept documents sent via mail and may process requests for accident reports they receive.

Note that the three primary agencies that respond to traffic accidents in Lawrenceville and its surrounding areas do not provide an official form or format for requesting via mail. As a result, other methods may be more reliable, and you should mail your request as a last resort.

If you must mail in your request, you can try to follow the format and include the information typically found in a Georgia Department of Transportation Individual Crash Report Request. All that said, there is nothing wrong with requesting your report through other means and having it mailed to you.

The Cost of Your Police Report

The average police report costs around $5 per report at a rate of around ten cents per page but can often be free for accident victims. This rate is mandated by state law to allow accident victims easy access to the information without putting strain on their pockets.

The Timeframe for Claiming Your Report

By state law, you should receive your accident report within a “reasonable amount of time” after making the request. Georgia mandates that government agencies respond to your request for a report within three business days, except in cases where it was not available at the time of request.

Since the typical police report takes around a day or two to write, you can expect to get your copy as early as a week after the accident.

Understanding Your Report

A police report is divided into different parts, each outlining and giving insight into different aspects of the event that took place.

  • Date, Time, and Location: The timestamp and location of the accident help identify the specific event that took place. Exact locations are noted typically using street names and landmarks (usually the case for Georgia) or coordinates.
  • Involved Parties: These are the people involved in the event. For each party involved, there will be a section noting how they were involved as well as other details specific to that involvement.
    • If they were a passenger, they would have a section noting where in the vehicle they were positioned.
    • Drivers will have specified the make and model of the car they were driving along with any relevant information pertaining to the vehicle, as well as notations regarding what they were doing (actions and/or maneuvers) at the time of the accident.
  • Weather and Road Conditions: Rain, fog, and other environmental conditions are accounted for. The state of the road is also outlined, as well as any noteworthy details regarding road signs and signals (such as construction work, potholes, or damaged signage).
  • Narrative and Diagram: This section often takes multiple pages depending on the complexity of the crash. Especially when a crash involves more than two vehicles, several pages may be necessary just to exposit how the event occurred.
    • Not every narrative section includes a diagram, but if one is included, it will usually show an overhead view of the scene as the officer found it when they arrived. Arrows will usually be drawn to indicate the direction in which cars and pedestrians are moving.
    • There isn’t really a standardized way to illustrate a car accident on a police report, and different officers may have their own way of depicting a scene. It may be worth it to ask questions regarding the accident diagram if your impressions of it don’t align with how you think the accident actually went.
  • Citations and Violations: Each party involved in the accident will have an associated section listing any traffic violations they incurred that contributed to the accident. This section is especially important in legal claims as it is one of the most surefire ways to establish an argument for a party’s fault.

Keep in mind that the information in these sections is gathered directly from the scene of the accident. This implies two things for your claim, one good and one bad.

First, it means that if you have a police report, you can generally expect it to be an accurate account of the accident, as the information is extremely fresh. Second, it means because police reports are so trusted, any errors in them can be difficult to argue against.

Common Errors in a Police Report

While we usually consider police reports to be objective, the truth is that officers are as human as anyone else and are, therefore, prone to commit the same mistakes anyone else might. As far as police reports go, this means there is always the chance for inaccurate or missing information to be jotted down, which can be a problem when trying to file a car accident claim.

Thankfully, there are ways to address errors in police reports. Let’s go through some common errors, and afterward, we’ll take a quick look at what to do when faced with them.

Incorrect Information/Details

Incorrect information on a police report can include personal details, vehicle details, or even simple misspellings. How badly this can affect your claim varies with the error; typos are easy enough to ignore and correct, but an incorrect name or address or even make or model of a car can lead to failure to identify and locate an at-fault party.

Inaccurate Accident Descriptions

Sometimes, accidents may be misrepresented or recorded incorrectly. If not properly reviewed, this can result in misunderstandings regarding the sequence of events, especially during negotiations with other parties or with the insurance provider.

Other times, diagrams might just be unclear or difficult to interpret. This essentially leads to the same problem as misrepresented descriptions, as a lack of coherent depictions means you and other parties might not be able to accurately compare details (such as road layout, vehicle position, collision points, etc.) in the report to what you remember happened.

Finally, one related error could be including the wrong time or location, which is an error that can lead to filing problems and make it difficult for the records department to locate your report. This leads to delays, which can cut into your timeline for securing compensation.

Omissions

Some accidents, particularly when they happen in urban areas, tend to involve multiple witnesses in addition to anyone directly involved in the accident itself. This can sometimes mean the responding officer is not able to interview everyone for a statement.

Missing witness statements may also result from failing to write down names or contact details. Without details of a witness, there is no way to verify whether something they said is true, which can affect the value of the report as evidence in a case or a claim.

Other information that may be omitted include contributory factors such as road conditions or weather. To show how important this is, here are two different depictions of the same accident:

  • An accident occurred at night on the corner of X and Y.
  • An accident occurred on a foggy night on the corner of X and Y where the street lamp had a malfunctioning bulb and a hardhat area next to it.

Without the additional context of a busted street lamp and a hard hat area, a person reading the police report would be more inclined to place a greater degree of responsibility on one or both of the drivers. In reality, their fault might be reduced by the external factors contributing to the accident.

Officers’ Errors

As we mentioned, officers are just as human as the rest of us, and potential mistakes on their part can directly affect you and your chance of getting fair compensation. Common examples of errors on the part of the officer are as follows:

  • Fault determination: Officers do not always assign fault in an accident, but depending on how they write their notes, they might unintentionally imply conclusions, such as that a party is responsible for the event even without enough evidence for it.
  • Bias: No matter how objective an officer might think they are, there is always a chance they might include interpretations or assumptions with insufficient evidence. If this bias skews the report’s findings one way or the other, it can lead to an unfair damage claim.
  • Overlooked citations: It’s become a common meme as of late that police officers do not necessarily understand the law to enforce it, but this does become a problem when the laws broken jeopardize the safety of road users no matter how insignificant the violation may be. Issued traffic violations and citations have to be properly recorded in order to maintain the report’s accuracy.

Errors made by the responding officer can be difficult to remedy given how people generally do not take correction wells, with larger errors being met with greater resistance. As a result, pointing out such mistakes can easily be taken as an accusation by an officer.

Working with a car accident lawyer can help avoid this issue.

Clerical Errors

Simple clerical errors such as mismatched dates and times or mistyped numbers (especially when it comes to vehicle speeds or distances) can be common and problematic for claimants. These discrepancies can lead to insurance companies questioning what should be inarguable facts and potentially causing denials.

Conflicting Statements

While not technically “errors,” as statements in a police report are usually verbatim, it is extremely common to have inconsistencies between accounts delivered by different parties. Contradictory statements are a problem for police reports because the complexity of such situations has to be accurately reflected without leading to bias.

Correcting Police Report Errors

If you need to correct errors on a police report, you will have to act quickly. This is because first, you probably need your correct copy as soon as possible, and second, because the longer you wait, the less likely the police will be willing to help you make a correction.

Note that there is no guarantee you will be able to make a correction, but here is how you can increase your chances:

  • Review Your Report: Read through the entire report before you complain about an error. Especially when it comes to narratives, It is entirely possible for context to be found later in the report that can explain what might be perceived as an error earlier in the same document.
  • Gather Evidence: If you do find errors, start gathering evidence and referring to evidence already gathered that supports your complaint.
  • Contact the Police Department: You will have to submit a correction request to the Lawrenceville Police Department. Contact them at 300 Jackson Street, Lawrenceville, GA, or by calling their non-emergency line at 770-962-4173 and follow the instructions to submit a request.
  • Follow-up: Once you have submitted your request, ask for a timeline estimate for when the correction will be processed. Do periodic checks to keep updated on the progress of your report, especially if they take longer than the estimated time.
  • Get Legal Assistance: You may want the assistance of a legal professional in case you run into any problems correcting errors. You may be able to save time by having a Lawrenceville car accident attorney on your side who can handle getting your police report while you focus on other aspects of your insurance claim.

When you make your request, maintain the same demeanor as when you were making the initial request in the first place. That is to say, keep a neutral and professional tone and avoid becoming emotional or inciting confrontation.

Becoming confrontational will often reduce your odds of getting assistance from the police department. Keep calm and remain respectful in order to encourage the police to cooperate with you and assist with your request for a correction.

Need Help With Your Police Report in Lawrenceville? Call the CEO Lawyer

When you need help with obtaining a police report for your car accident case, the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm is here for you. Our expert Lawrenceville car accident lawyers will provide you with support from consultation all the way to settlement.

The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm is one of the fastest-growing law firms in the country. Under the leadership of Attorney Ali Awad, we offer expert legal help for our clients in personal injury cases from car accidents to wrongful death.

At our firm, we aim to provide you with expert service to get you fair compensation and justice for the harm you’ve sustained in an accident. When you need to secure your copy of a police accident report, we can free up your hands and handle the entire process for you, saving you time, money, and the stress of having to do it yourself.

Contact us today for a free consultation at (770) 525-9098 and get started with your claim.

Find out what your case is worth here

Let us know more about your case below. Please note that your information is saved on our server as you enter it.

Step 1 of 7

What kind of accident was it?

What kind of accident was it?(Required)

Frequently Asked Questions

Take a look at some of the most common personal injury law questions for general information, and then reach out to one of our seasoned attorneys for specific guidance on your case!

What Is My Personal Injury Case Worth?

The value of your case depends on several factors, including the severity of your injuries, medical expenses, lost wages, and the impact on your life. Each personal injury case is unique, and the combination of these factors varies from one case to another. An experienced personal injury lawyer can provide you with a more precise estimate of your case’s value by reviewing the specific details of your situation. They will analyze similar cases in your jurisdiction, consider the legal precedents, and use their knowledge of past settlements and verdicts to gauge a realistic potential outcome for your case. This estimate helps you understand what you might expect regarding compensation and guides the negotiation or litigation process to ensure you receive a fair settlement.

What Should I Do Immediately After an Accident?

After an accident, seek medical attention immediately, even if you feel fine, to address any hidden injuries. Document everything, including photos of the scene and contact information for witnesses. Gathering witness statements is crucial because they provide an objective account of the accident, supporting your version of events and strengthening your personal injury claim. Report the incident to the proper authorities, such as the police or property owner. Finally, contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible to discuss your legal options and protect your rights, ensuring you receive fair compensation for your injuries.

How Much Will a Personal Injury Lawyer Cost?

Most personal injury lawyers operate on a contingency fee basis, which means that you don’t have to pay any upfront fees or hourly rates. Instead, the lawyer’s payment is contingent upon the outcome of your case. If you win your case, whether through a settlement or a court judgment, the lawyer will receive a percentage of the compensation awarded to you. If you don't win your case, you usually won’t owe the lawyer any fees for their services.

How Long Will It Take to Resolve My Personal Injury Case?

The timeline for resolving a personal injury case can vary significantly based on a variety of factors, making it difficult to predict exactly how long your case will take. The complexity of the case is a major determining factor. For instance, straightforward cases with clear liability and minimal disputes over damages can sometimes be resolved relatively quickly, often within a few months. These cases may involve negotiating a fair settlement with the insurance company, which can happen promptly if all parties are cooperative and the evidence is strong.