Police Report Errors in Georgia Car Accident Cases — and How to Fix Them

Police Report Errors in Georgia Car Accident Cases — and How to Fix Them

Police Report Errors in GA Accidents: A police report is often the single most important document in a Georgia car accident case. Insurance adjusters rely on it. Defense attorneys scrutinize it.

Judges and juries may see it. Yet despite its weight, police accident reports are riddled with errors far more often than most injury victims realize — and those errors can quietly destroy an otherwise strong personal injury claim.

If you were hurt in a car crash in Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Decatur, or anywhere else in Georgia, understanding how police reports work, what goes wrong, and what you can do to correct the record could be the difference between full compensation and nothing at all. At Haug Barron Law Group, Personal Injury Lawyers, we represent Georgia accident victims exclusively on the plaintiff’s side. We never represent insurance companies or defendants.

Why the Georgia Police Report Matters So Much

Under Georgia law, officers are required to investigate and file a written report for crashes that result in injury, death, or property damage over a certain threshold. These reports are completed on Form SR-13, the Georgia Motor Vehicle Accident Report, and are submitted to the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS) and often to the relevant law enforcement agency’s own records system.

The report captures information that no other document does: the officer’s on-scene observations, statements from drivers and witnesses, a diagram of the crash, weather and road conditions, contributing factors, and — crucially — the officer’s determination of fault or contributing causes.

Insurance companies treat the at-fault determination in a police report as powerful evidence. If the report incorrectly blames you, or fails to record the other driver’s traffic violation, you may face a bad-faith denial, a low settlement offer, or a damages reduction under Georgia’s modified comparative fault rules. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33, if you are found 50% or more at fault, you recover nothing. If the police report inaccurately assigns you partial fault, it can directly reduce your recovery — or eliminate it entirely.

The Most Common Police Report Errors in Georgia Car Accident Cases

Errors fall into two broad categories: factual mistakes and interpretive or judgment errors. Both can be challenged, but they require different approaches.

Incorrect Driver or Vehicle Information

Officers gather information quickly at chaotic crash scenes. Transposed license plate numbers, misspelled names, wrong insurance policy numbers, and incorrect VINs are surprisingly common. While these clerical errors seem minor, they can delay claims processing and create confusion about which policy applies.

Wrong Description of How the Crash Happened

The narrative section of the report describes what the officer believes occurred. If witness statements are missed, if the officer arrived after the scene had changed, or if a driver gave a misleading account, the narrative may be factually wrong. We have seen reports that describe a rear-end collision as a sideswipe, or that fail to note that one driver ran a red light.

Inaccurate Fault or Contributing Factor Codes

Georgia SR-13 reports include coded fields for contributing circumstances (e.g., speeding, failure to yield, distracted driving, impairment). If these codes are blank when they should be filled in — or filled in incorrectly — critical evidence of the other driver’s negligence disappears from the official record.

Missing or Incorrect Witness Information

Eyewitnesses who corroborate your account can be decisive in a disputed-liability case. If the officer failed to record a bystander’s name and contact information, or if the report incorrectly lists a biased witness as neutral, your case suffers.

Inaccurate Injury Description

Officers are not medical professionals. They record what they observe at the scene. If you were in shock and reported feeling fine, or if your injuries were internal and not immediately apparent, the report may state “no injury” or “minor injury.” This is one of the most damaging errors in soft-tissue cases, TBI cases, and delayed-onset injuries.

Incorrect Road or Weather Conditions

Road surface conditions, lighting, signage, and weather can all be contributing factors in a crash. An officer who checks “dry” when the road was wet from a recent rain, or who fails to note a malfunctioning traffic signal, removes a significant piece of context from the record.

Diagram Errors

The crash diagram is meant to show vehicle positions, directions of travel, and the point of impact. Errors in the diagram can directly contradict your account of how the crash happened and give defense attorneys ammunition at trial.

Omission of Traffic Violations

If the at-fault driver was cited at the scene — for running a red light, speeding, following too closely, or DUI — that citation should appear in the report. Omissions here weaken your negligence per se argument under Georgia law.

How to Request a Copy of Your Georgia Accident Report

Before you can challenge a police report, you need a copy. In Georgia, accident reports are public records and can be obtained through several channels:

• Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS): Visit dds.georgia.gov to purchase a copy of your crash report online. You will need the report number, date, county, and at least one driver’s last name.
• Local law enforcement agency: If Atlanta Police Department, Fulton County Sheriff, DeKalb County Police, or another local agency responded, you can request the report directly from them. Fees and processing times vary.
• LexisNexis and Buycrash.com: Many Georgia law enforcement agencies upload reports to third-party platforms, which allow purchase and download within days of the crash.
• Your attorney: If you’ve retained a personal injury lawyer, they can obtain the report on your behalf — and will know exactly what to look for.

Can a Police Report Be Changed in Georgia?

Yes — but the process depends on the type of error and which agency filed the report. Officers can amend their own reports, but they are under no legal obligation to do so simply because you disagree with their conclusions. Persistence, documentation, and legal representation matter enormously.

Step 1: Review the Report Carefully

Read every field of the SR-13. Compare the narrative, diagram, codes, and witness information against your own memory, your medical records, photos from the scene, and any video footage that exists. Write down every specific discrepancy.

Step 2: Gather Supporting Evidence

Build a file of evidence that contradicts the errors. This may include photographs and video from the crash scene (dashcam, security cameras, traffic cameras, bystander phones), medical records documenting injuries not noted at the scene, statements from eyewitnesses who were not interviewed or whose accounts were misrecorded, cell phone records or data showing the other driver was distracted, weather service records or traffic signal maintenance logs, and accident reconstruction expert analysis.

Step 3: Contact the Investigating Officer

Your first step is usually to reach out to the officer who filed the report. In Georgia, the filing officer has the authority to issue a supplemental or amended report. Approach this professionally. Bring documentation. Explain the specific errors and provide the evidence. Many officers are willing to correct factual errors (wrong VIN, wrong address) but are more resistant to changing fault determinations or contributing factor codes. This is where having an attorney advocate on your behalf makes a significant difference.

Step 4: Contact the Law Enforcement Agency

If the officer is unresponsive or refuses to amend the report, you can escalate to the officer’s supervisor or the agency’s records division. Larger agencies like APD and DeKalb County Police have formal procedures for report amendment requests.

Step 5: File Your Own Statement

Even if the report itself cannot be changed, you have the right to submit a written statement to be placed in the file. Your attorney can draft a detailed letter disputing the errors and attaching supporting evidence. This becomes part of the record and puts the insurer and any future fact-finder on notice that the report’s accuracy is contested. Some Georgia courts have allowed injured parties to submit supplemental statements under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-273.

Step 6: Use Expert Witnesses and Independent Investigation

A qualified accident reconstruction expert can independently analyze the physical evidence — skid marks, vehicle damage patterns, debris fields, surveillance footage — and produce a report that contradicts the officer’s findings. In contested cases, this expert testimony can effectively neutralize a bad police report at trial or mediation.

What Insurers Do With Police Reports — and Why Errors Compound Over Time

Insurance adjusters are trained to use the police report as the primary framework for evaluating a claim. A report that assigns even partial fault to you will trigger a lower settlement offer. A report that misses the other driver’s distraction or impairment will be used to argue there is no evidence of negligence.

Errors compound because adjusters cite the report in claim notes, defense attorneys rely on those notes, and by the time litigation begins, the incorrect narrative has been baked into the opposing party’s entire defense strategy. Correcting a police report early — or at least formally disputing it — prevents this narrative from calcifying.

Under the Georgia Insurance Code (O.C.G.A. § 33-6-34), insurers are required to act in good faith. If an insurer continues to deny a valid claim by relying on a police report that has been credibly disputed, that refusal may constitute bad faith — which can entitle you to additional penalties and attorney’s fees.

Disputed Liability Cases: When the Police Report Is the Battleground

Some car accident cases involve genuinely disputed facts — where both drivers have plausible accounts and the physical evidence does not clearly resolve the dispute. At Haug Barron Law Group, our of-counsel attorney Mark Jackson specializes in exactly these contested-liability situations.

In disputed cases, the police report often becomes the primary battlefield. The side that can most credibly challenge or support the report’s conclusions frequently wins. Our approach in these cases includes:

• Immediate scene investigation and evidence preservation
• Early retention of accident reconstruction experts
• Subpoena of traffic cameras, dashcam systems, and commercial surveillance footage
• Cell phone records requests to establish distraction
• Formal written disputes filed with the investigating agency
• Deposition of the reporting officer to expose the limits of their investigation

Special Situations: Hit-and-Run, Uninsured Drivers, and UM/UIM Claims

Police report errors are especially damaging in hit-and-run cases and claims involving uninsured or underinsured motorists (UM/UIM). In these situations, the police report may be the only official record of what happened. If it incorrectly describes the crash, it can jeopardize your UM/UIM claim with your own insurance company.

Georgia requires insurers to offer UM/UIM coverage under O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11. If your own insurer is relying on a flawed police report to undervalue or deny your UM claim, a personal injury attorney can build an independent evidentiary record — separate from the police report — to support your claim.

Georgia-Specific Resources for Police Report Disputes

• Georgia Department of Driver Services — Accident Reports — Purchase official SR-13 reports
• Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) — Traffic safety data and crash statistics
• Georgia Code O.C.G.A. § 40-6-273 — Duty to Report Accidents
• Georgia Code O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33 — Comparative Fault
• Atlanta Police Department Records Unit
• DeKalb County Police Department — Report requests for Decatur and DeKalb County crashes

How Haug Barron Law Group Handles Police Report Problems

When you hire Haug Barron Law Group, Personal Injury Lawyers, reviewing and challenging the police report is one of the first things we do. Our process:

• Obtain the complete police report and all supplemental reports
• Compare the report against medical records, photographs, witness statements, and physical evidence
• Identify every factual error and every omission that affects liability or damages
• Contact the investigating officer directly to seek corrections
• Submit formal written disputes with supporting documentation
• Retain independent experts where needed to rebut the report’s conclusions
• Ensure the insurer is put on notice of every inaccuracy before any settlement discussions begin

We handle car accident cases across Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Decatur, and throughout Georgia. We are a plaintiff-only firm — we have never represented an insurance company or a defendant, and we never will.

Have questions about errors in your accident report?

Visit our Georgia Car Accident FAQs to learn how report mistakes can impact your claim, how to correct them, and what evidence matters most.

Errors in a police report can significantly impact liability and the outcome of your car accident claim. Contact Haug Barron Law Group to discuss your case and protect your right to full compensation.

Disclaimer: This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this content does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different. Contact a licensed Georgia personal injury attorney to discuss the specific facts of your situation.