What should I NOT say after an accident?
Samantha B. Cohn's Answer
Full Transcript
Below is an AI-generated transcript of the video answer.
Still in the car, still answering questions. Got a whole bunch of them. Thought I'd get them all done in quick succession so you guys could have the info that you need.
Question that got asked was what should I not say after I've been involved in an accident?
So whenever anybody watches a courtroom show, the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial, sorry I was laughing about that earlier today with a colleague.
You hear the main objection is hearsay. Hearsay, hearsay, hearsay. What is hearsay?
It is an out of court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted.
So a good example would be what color was the light? Or how fast were you going? How fast did she tell you she was going? Something like that.
So in normal conversations we say she told me such and such or he told me or he said or this. That's for the most part going to be hearsay.
Now there are exceptions to this. So you need to be very mindful in what you say after an accident.
Actually in Virginia it's not even an exception. A statement by a party opponent is not considered to be hearsay in Virginia.
In a lot of states it is considered to be hearsay objection. In Virginia it's not even hearsay.
So for instance say if you and I were in an accident and one of us sued the other one, whatever either of us said would be a statement by a party opponent.
So whatever you say after an accident can be used against you by the other party.
So if it's a light, don't talk about light color. If it is who had the right of way, how fast you were going.
One of the regular questions that I ask in discovery if you're in circuit court is did you make any statements?
Did the other party make any statements? Did the witnesses make any statements?
So anything that is said to either the person you were in an accident with, any witnesses, any passengers that might have been in the vehicle, the police officer.
A lot of times those statements are going to come in.
So try to avoid anything that's going to signify or denote fault.
Or maybe don't even say I'm fine, I don't need, I'm not hurt.
So again, light color, speed, things like that, I didn't see you or myriad of other statements that go to the facts of how the accident happened.
Those are all potentially going to be detrimental.
Now sorry, saying sorry, that is not allowed to come into proof fault.
Because we just say sorry because we don't want people to be in accidents, we don't want them to be hurt.
So you apologizing and saying I'm so sorry this happened, that's not necessarily going to bite you in the butt later.
But if you say I'm so sorry I didn't see you, that most certainly is going to be a problem.
So answer the officer's questions, exchange information, insurance information and all that stuff.
Always call the police, always.
Share all of that, however be, try to be mindful about talking about the facts about how the accident happened or how you're feeling.
That should help set you up for a more successful case down the road if it gets there.