What Happens When a Driver Refuses to Exchange Information

Every driver in Virginia should know exactly what to do when you’re in a crash. But what happens when the other driver feels like you’re fishing for more information than you need? What if the other driver refuses to exchange information? You can argue that you need it, or simply remove yourself from the situation.

Now, this other driver may have other reasons for not providing the information. Car wreck attorneys in Richmond, VA see it all the time. The other driver may not have the minimum insurance requirements. They may also have a warrant out for their arrest and worry that a crash would bring that up with the police department. There are countless reasons for someone not wanting to give their insurance or personal information. These steps can help you navigate this obstacle and overcome it when filing your claim.

What to Do if the Other Driver Refuses to Exchange Information

Collect What Information You Can

The extent of information that you need goes far beyond what you can obtain on your own. However, you can collect enough information without the other driver to start a claim and get by for now. What can you collect without the other driver providing any information?

You will need to document when and where the crash took place in Richmond. But you’ll also need their license plate number which if the car pulled over you should access easily. The color, make, and model of the car are fairly important as well. With just that information, you can start your claim with your insurance company and contact an attorney.

When a driver refuses to exchange information, however, you’ll need to address the authorities as well. Many people will wait until later to contact the authorities believing that they’ve avoided a confrontation. But what you may have instead is an issue of not alerting the authorities sooner.

Get in Your Car and Contact the Authorities

Threatening to contact law enforcement, the authorities, or Richmond PD can bring out the worst in people who believe they’re in trouble. As mentioned earlier, people may believe that if they caused the crash, they could be in more trouble, and avoid giving you all their information to avoid further trouble. But they may also just not be aware of what information they’re required to provide.

In the modern days, it’s hard for people to hand out personal or private information such as their name, address, and phone numbers to strangers. But Virginia requires some information to be exchanged after a crash. The authorities will be better at educating this person than you, and the situation could become more than argumentative, it could become violent.

Return to your car, and call the police, no need to call 911 unless someone is hurt, but contact the local police department. Alert them that the driver refuses to exchange information. They may come out, or they may say to simply take down the license plate number and file a police report.

If the authorities come out, they may take over on collecting information and then file a police report to match what they found at the scene.

Report Your Crash as Usual

Always report your crash to local law enforcement, your insurance company, the DMV if necessary, and contact an attorney. What you’re doing through this is alerting the right people that you were in a crash and need compensation for either property damage or personal injury.

Alerting the right people and giving them the information that you do have will help to start your claim. From there, the insurance company and DMV will process the license plate and vehicle information to see if there is an open insurance policy for the vehicle and the driver’s information attached to that. It’s not so uncommon that people avoid giving information, so many insurance company’s have systems in place to find policies with the most basic of information.

How Can a Car Accident Attorney from Richmond, VA Help You?

Unlike insurance companies and police departments that are often overworked for their resources, lawyers pace themselves. Our resources do have limits, but often our legal team only takes on cases that they can manage within the extent of their ability and our office’s resources. We can undergo extensive investigations to find the driver who hit you and identify their insurance information or provider.

The goal, of course, is to get you the money or financial relief that you use. At Virginia Injury Law, an attorney will work alongside your insurance company and the Richmond Police to expose the driver’s insurance coverage. Then we’ll fight for the absolute maximum financial relief possible. Contact our car wreck law firm in Richmond, VA.