Do I have a case if a ticket or citation was not issued by a police officer?

A: Yes. There is no requirement that a ticket or citation be issued in any car accident personal injury case. Under the civil justice system, the injured person typically just needs to prove by the greater majority ("greater weight") of the evidence that the other party was the cause of the accident and injuries.

Even more significantly, most states do not even allow into evidence in a personal injury case whether the police officer issued a ticket or citation to the responsible driver that caused the crash. In some states, the only exception to introducing evidence of a traffic/criminal ticket issued to the responsible driver is if that driver actually pleads guilty or mails in the ticket accepting responsibility-then that evidence is admissible.

Sometimes a police officer just doesn't feel comfortable saying which driver is at fault, but once we interview a client and investigate the crash, we often become highly convinced that our client is free of fault and have accepted many injury cases over many years where no ticket was issued.

About the editors: The motto at Shapiro, Lewis, & Appleton law firm is simple -"All we do is injury law." We hope you were able to find the answer to your injury query. If not, please review our North and South Carolina Accident Attorney FAQ library for additional information. If you'd like to speak to an actual attorney about your potential injury claim for free, please contact our office at 1-800-752-0042.