Failing to report, After reporting????

Here is what happened...

My girlfriend which is a insured driver of my truck dropped me off at work yesterday and went to the mall which is a block away to go shopping. As she was leaving her parking spot to come back to me she clipped the car next to her turning to shortly. Panicing she drove off and came and got me crying that someone hit my truck unattended in the spot, she noticed it when she came out. Trying to go down all the proper avenue's I started a claim and went and got a police report stateing such. My girlfriend was visibly upset but thought nothing of it since it was my brand new truck and she thought I would be pissed. Later yesterday night it ate away at her too much and had to come clean. She called the police admitting to them what happened that she clipped a car in the parking lot. The cop investigateing the incident came and met her at my work filling out a new police report with the proper information and linking it to the original that I made. The question I have is the police officer ticketed her with "failure to report". She called the police admitting what she had done not even 4 hours later. So I was just curious what the good people on this forum think. Was she ticketed with the wrong offence or am should she just take the punishment?

Im actually somewhat surprised she wasnt charged criminally with public mischief, an arguably much more serious charge. While I do give her credit for eventually doing the right thing, I would have to say she did commit the offence of failing to report, because she didnt notify the police "forthwith" and allowed a false report to be made prior.

I was told from an uneducated source that you are given 24 hours to file an accident claim. I'm just exhausting all my resource because I think the insurance is going to come down hard on both me and her since it seems they are somewhat impplieing that I was fully aware of the accident and was lieing to them.

No twenty four hour rule, the law simply says forthwith (basically as soon as practicable). In my opinion the false report clearly shows that she had the opportunity to notify the police earlier, but failed to do so (in that she provided false information). She likely will face serious insurance rate hikes upon conviction, so it may be worth consulting with a paralegal. They may see ways to fight the charge or possibly plead it down to something less serious. The fact that your girlfriend eventually came forward on her own could help for some leniency.

That's what I'm hoping. I have left a message with "Ex-Copper" hopefully they can help. No charges were laid as far as purgery. But I don't know if the insurance can assume I was aware of the true events the whole time and raise my rates.

Agree with Stanton. The way I see it, it looks like the officer was actually being lenient by charging her with "failure to report." It could've been worse. I suppose you could ask for a reduced fine in court, or possibly try to plea-bargain to a lesser charge. Technically, a report was made, but it was a false one. See what X-Copper says.

As for insurance, the adjuster will likely be hard-core because of the circumstances, but you acted in good faith based upon the information you had at the time. It may be a bit of a struggle with them. Adjusters and insurance investigators who deal with auto claims have people lie to them non-stop, all day long, so the second there's any indication of impropriety, they tend to get aggressive. They really don't have any proof that you were lying to them. Once they get their hands on the police report, they should realize that you were just telling them what you had been told, and tried to correct it as soon as the truth was revealed. Your rates may be affected by the collision itself, but only because of that. There really isn't "insurance fraud" going on here, because you did not intentionally try to deceive them.

That's the way I hope they see it. I honestly know my girlfriend is screwed, she may not be driving for awhile because of her record. There is just two things I don't want to happen.

One I get blamed for lieing to my insurance company when I corrected the claim first thing the next morning not even 6 hours later.

Secondly I'm not just going to lie down, I need to try and get a more lienient sentance for my girlfriend, I know she did something wrong and may diserve it but atleast she called and confessed on her own accord.

The only thing I can see we have going for us is even on the original police report that was false the location and all details were still correct other then the act it self. So it wasn't like it was a full cover up. It wouldn't have been hard for them to track her down.

Cormacs wrote:

The only thing I can see we have going for us is even on the original police report that was false the location and all details were still correct other then the act it self. So it wasn't like it was a full cover up. It wouldn't have been hard for them to track her down.

surely if the police "had" to track her down, she would be charged criminally for sure, that is what probably saved that charge, by coming forward