Am I entitled by law to be issued an accident report from a private company when the accident happened inside private property?
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Am I entitled by law to be issued an accident report from a private company when the accident happened inside private property?
My vehicle was struck by a company vehicle inside the company premises. I was referred to their claims department, who declines to pay for my damages, and declines to issue me a copy of the accident report made by their security staff, which includes my personal information, including driver’s license number.
Asked on April 30, 2012 under Accident Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
No, unless you sue the company, you have no legal right to their accident report; as you note, they are a private company and the report is their property and their work product. There is no legal requirement for a private company (or person) to give you a report or documentation belonging to it. The fact that it is about you or contains some of your information does not change this.
If you sue the company, you may be able to get the report, using the legal mechanisms of "discovery" (e.g. document production requests; written interrogatories or questions), though depending on the circumstances, it is possible it would still be protected by one or another "privelege"; for example, if an attorney worked on the report, it may be protected by attorney-client privilege or as an attorney work product.
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