Anyone who has ever had their life disrupted by a car accident knows first-hand how hard insurance adjusters will work to refute your story. Proving you were not at fault for an accident is essential to receiving the damages you are entitled to. This is one of the reasons many drivers have opted to install dashboard cameras in their vehicles. Dash cams are small video cameras that attach to your car’s windshield or dashboard or windshield and record footage of the roadway in front of you in real time. Thanks to modern technological advances, high-quality dashboard cameras are fairly affordable. They can support insurance claims by allowing others to observe accurate visual replays of car crashes and other events. If you were injured in a car accident and have questions or concerns about the dash cam footage you recorded, the skilled Virginia Beach car accident lawyers at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp can help. Contact us to schedule your free consultation.
How Can a Dash Cam Impact My Insurance Claim?
Dash cams provide video evidence that can strengthen your insurance claim. Footage will include events leading up to the accident, as well as those that took place during and after. Dash cam footage can be helpful by offering concrete proof of the other driver’s negligence. For instance, it could show them fleeing the scene, running a red light, failing to yield, and other traffic violations. Dash cam footage can also be useful if your police accident report contains inaccurate details or is missing information that is vital to your claim.
Insurance companies are notorious for disputing claims, even obvious ones, to pay out as little money as possible. Dashboard camera footage that shows their policyholder clearly committing negligence in real time should be more than enough to convince an insurance adjuster to settle your claim fairly. Dash cam footage is particularly efficacious when you work with an experienced Virginia Beach car accident lawyer who can help you organize and present your evidence.
Unfortunately, insurance adjusters have now developed the habit of trying to invalidate dash cam footage, especially if weather conditions impact the footage’s visibility or if the footage is figuratively or literally unclear for any reason.
A knowledgeable Portsmouth car accident lawyer can tell you if your footage is strong enough to qualify as evidence and, if applicable, explain how the insurance company may be able to use it against you.
Can My Dash Cam Footage Be Used Against Me In Court?
A dashboard camera is an impartial observer. If someone else was negligent and caused your accident, that is what the footage will show. If negligence on your part contributed to or caused your accident, the footage will show that as well. In the case of dash cams that record audio, insurance companies like to use footage of loud music, crying babies, or engaging with passengers to claim you were not paying attention and therefore liable for the crash. If the insurance adjutor becomes aware you have a dash cam they can get a court order allowing them to access the footage.
Insurance adjusters are consummate professionals when it comes to invalidating your evidence, and that includes dash cam footage. The importance of having an experienced Portsmouth car accident lawyer review your footage before you submit it to the insurance company cannot be stressed enough.
All We Do Is Injury Law
If you were injured in a car accident through no fault of your own, a Portsmouth car accident lawyer from Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp can review all your evidence, including dash cam footage, and develop a legal strategy that will not allow the insurance company to take advantage of you, which is exactly what we did when we secured a $125,000 settlement for a client who was injured when another driver ran a red light. To schedule a free review of your potential car accident case, call us at (833) 997-1774 or reach out through our online contact form. For your convenience, we have offices located in Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Hampton.