Accident Reports

Accident reports are a great source of evidence in pre-suit stage in dealing with insurance adjusters.  However, what happens to the report when it gets to the jury stage?  The case to read on this issue is Rhoda v. Weathers located here.  In this case the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court excluding an accident report created as unreliable.  The officer testified outside the presence of the jury that he had no independent memory of the accident and that he did not actually reconstruct the accident.  As such, the report lacked trustworthiness and was excluded.  This was important in the case as the report noted that the Defendant failed to yield the right of way and eventually the jury returned a defense verdict.