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Post-crash evidence checklist

Ordered by how fast each thing disappears rather than by subject, because that is the order it actually matters in. And every item names who the demand has to go to, which is the part nothing else sets out. One letter to an insurance company is the commonest way all of this fails.

The order
Decay
Fastest to disappear first, not most important first.
The missing piece
Who
Each item names its recipient. Most lists never do.
What it never asks
Go there
Nothing here sends you to a scene or a vehicle. Ask others.
Your ticks
Stay here
Nothing stored or transmitted. Reloading clears them.

Before you start

  • You do not have to do this yourself. If somebody is representing you, this is their work. The list is so you can check it is happening.
  • Do not go anywhere for it. Nothing here requires you at a scene, a yard or a vehicle. Every item is a request to somebody else.
  • Separate letters, separate recipients. The most common failure is one demand sent to one company while the records sit elsewhere.
  • Your health comes first, always. If you are still being treated, hand this to somebody else and put it down.

01 The checklist

What this is

Fourteen items in four groups, ordered by how quickly each one stops being available. Each carries the recipient it has to be addressed to, because the letter going to the wrong party is the reason most of this is lost.

Work down it, tick what has been done

Nothing is stored and nothing is sent anywhere, so your ticks disappear when you close or reload this page. Print it if you want something to hand to whoever is helping you.

The first hours

Hours

These stop being possible almost immediately, and mostly they are somebody else's job.

The first days

Days

Cameras overwrite on their own cycles and nobody will warn you when yours has come round.

The first weeks

Weeks

These sit on retention clocks that run whether or not anybody has asked.

Before anything is repaired or scrapped

Event

Not a clock but a trigger. Once it happens, none of these can be recovered.

0 of 14 done

Nothing ticked yet. Work down from the top, because the list is ordered by how fast each item stops being available rather than by how much it matters.

If most of this is unticked and somebody is already representing you, the useful next move is to ask them which of these has gone out and to whom. That is a reasonable question and the answer should be specific.

02 Why the recipient matters more than the wording

Quick answer

Because a perfectly drafted demand sent to the wrong party preserves nothing. The material in a commercial case sits with several unconnected organizations, and none of them receives a letter addressed to somebody else.

This is the reason the checklist above puts a recipient on every line, and it is the thing most published lists leave out entirely.

  • The insurer does not hold the records. It holds a policy. The duty records, the driver file and the maintenance history sit with the carrier.
  • The carrier does not hold the vehicle. A yard or a repair facility does, and that business answers to whoever is paying it.
  • Nobody in that chain holds the camera footage. A shop, a depot or a homeowner does, and their systems overwrite on a cycle nobody is watching.
  • And some of it is on a vendor's servers. Which means you have to ask for a name before you can ask for the records.

Our guide to evidence to preserve explains what each of those categories actually contains, including why asking for the black box is the wrong request.

Wooden staircase with red carpet and ornate railing
The order
Decay, not importance.

03 Why it is ordered by decay rather than importance

Quick answer

Because the most important item is not always the one about to vanish. A driver file will still exist next month. A shop's camera footage will not. Sorting by importance gets the wrong things done first.

Any useful post accident checklist has to be sequenced by what expires, and almost none of them are.

  • Hours: people and the scene. Witnesses disperse and the road is cleared, and neither can be reconstructed afterwards.
  • Days: anything on a camera. Retention is frequently measured in days, and the cycle runs whether or not anybody has asked.
  • Weeks: records on a retention clock. Finite periods apply, and a claim that drifts through a season can lose them entirely.
  • And one group with no clock at all. The physical items, which are lost the moment a vehicle is repaired or scrapped rather than after any period.

That last group is why the fourth heading names an event instead of a timescale. A vehicle can be released in three days or three months, and the only thing that matters is getting there first.

A chandelier hanging from the ceiling in a large room
Not you
Ask, do not go.

04 Why nothing here asks you to go anywhere

Quick answer

Because this list is most likely to be read by somebody who is injured, or by a relative sitting in a hospital. Every item on it is a request made to another party, and not one of them requires you to attend a scene, a yard or a vehicle.

Checklists that tell people to photograph a crash site are written for a reader who does not exist in a catastrophic case.

  • Photographs come from whoever was there. Police, passers-by, a family member who arrived. Not from you afterwards.
  • Vehicle inspection is somebody qualified. On notice to all sides. It is not a visit you make.
  • Every demand is a letter. Which somebody can send on your behalf, and should.
  • If you are still being treated, stop. Hand the list to somebody and put it down. It keeps.

Our guide on what to do after a serious crash sets out the first days from the injured person's side, including what is genuinely urgent and what only feels that way.

05 Red flags

Quick answer

One letter sent to one company, no inspection arranged before a vehicle is released, nobody asking who runs the fleet system, and no record of what was sent or when.

Each is visible from outside without any expertise, which is the reason to keep a list at all. A post accident checklist is only useful if somebody actually audits it against what was sent.

How preservation fails while everybody thinks it worked

A single demand to the insurer. It holds a policy, not the records, the vehicles or the footage. The vehicles released. Once repaired or scrapped there is no later request that recovers them, and no download replaces the physical unit. Nobody asked for the vendor's name. The most revealing material can sit with a company nobody has yet identified. Cameras left to their cycle. Days, usually, and no one is notified when the window closes. No proof of what went out. What was asked for and when becomes its own argument later, and memory will not settle it.

A closing word on what this page is. It is an instrument rather than an explanation, and the two guides linked above carry the reasoning. What this post accident checklist adds is the recipient on every line and an order that matches how quickly things vanish. If a firm is already acting for you, the right use of it is to ask which items have gone out and to whom. Our guide to choosing a truck accident firm covers how to ask that before you engage anybody. You can read how we match people with attorneys, and a free case review costs nothing.

How we vet every lawyer

This is a standard rather than an ordering. An attorney either clears it or does not.

  • Active, discipline-free license

    Verified good standing with the state bar, with no unresolved discipline on record. You can check this yourself too.

  • Sends separate demands to separate holders

    Rather than one letter to an insurer, which is how most preservation quietly fails.

  • Moves on the vehicles in days

    Because a repaired or scrapped unit cannot be recovered by any later request.

  • Clear contingency terms

    Fees and case costs put in writing up front, so you know exactly how it works before signing.

Tell us what happened and we will only match you when a case genuinely fits.

Help in all 50 states

MVA Lawyer Network is a nationwide guide. Wherever it happened, we can connect you with an independent attorney licensed in that state.

Northeast Southeast Midwest Southwest West Coast Mountain West Gulf States Alaska and Hawaii

The items on this list are worth securing everywhere, but what happens if they are not is state law and it differs a great deal. Whether a court may tell a jury that destroyed evidence can be assumed unfavorable to whoever lost it, what state of mind must be shown before that follows, whether a separate claim exists for destroying evidence at all, when a duty to preserve begins and what it requires, how quickly a formal demand must be made, and what a police agency must release and how soon all vary. Nothing here is a statement about the law where you live, and nothing here says anything about the strength or value of any claim. The deadline for bringing a claim, known as the statute of limitations, is running now.

How this list was built, and why

A short note on method, because a list like this should be able to explain its own shape.

Two pages already promised what this one would be. The evidence guide told readers this page sets the material out as something they can work through item by item. The what-to-do guide told them it goes further on each category and on who to address. Both promises were located and read before a word of this page was written. The second one turned out to be the more useful instruction, because a check of both siblings found that neither actually maps recipients: one contains no addressee statements at all, and the other refers to recipients three times without ever saying who each item's recipient is.

So every line carries its addressee. That is the genuinely new material here and it is the reason the page exists rather than being a summary of two others. Preservation usually fails not because the wording was wrong but because one letter went to an insurance company while the vehicles sat in a yard, the records sat with a carrier, and the footage sat on a shop's recorder that overwrote itself the following week.

The order is decay, not importance. Our attorney vetting checklist groups by subject because nothing on it expires. This one cannot, so it runs hours, days, weeks, and then a fourth group tied to an event rather than a clock. Sorted by importance, a reader would chase the driver qualification file while a camera cycle closed.

Nothing asks the reader to go anywhere. The likeliest reader is injured or is a relative in a hospital corridor. Every item is a request made to somebody else, and no item sends anybody to a scene, a yard or a vehicle. The read-out counts what has been done and says nothing whatever about whether a case is strong, weak or worth anything, because this site publishes no case valuations and doing so here would be indefensible.

Our editorial standards

How we keep this guide accurate and worth trusting.

01

We checked what we had promised

Two pages described this one before it existed. We read both and built to match.

02

Every item names its recipient

The gap neither sibling filled, and the commonest reason preservation fails.

03

Ordered by what vanishes first

Not by importance, because the wrong order loses the fast-decaying items.

04

Nothing sends you anywhere

The reader is likely injured. Every line is a request to somebody else.

Michael Mangione, Legal Research Editor
Michael Mangione Verified editor
Legal Research Editor · Founder, The Mangione Group, Inc.

MVA Lawyer Network is edited by Michael Mangione, who has spent more than twelve years working inside contingency-based law firms, building intake departments, designing qualification frameworks, and studying how claims are screened and pursued from the first call through resolution. Preservation letters get drafted carefully and addressed carelessly. The wording is rarely the problem; the envelope is.

Common questions, answered

General information, not legal advice. What happens when evidence is lost differs by state, so check with an attorney licensed where it happened.

Do I have to do any of this myself?

No, and if somebody is representing you it is their work rather than yours. The list is here so you can see whether it is happening and ask specific questions about what has gone out and to whom. Nothing on it requires you to attend a scene, a storage yard or a vehicle. If you are still being treated, hand it to somebody else and put it down.

Why does each item say who to send it to?

Because that is where this usually fails. A carefully worded demand achieves nothing if it reaches a party that does not hold the thing being demanded. An insurer holds a policy; the duty records sit with the carrier, the vehicles sit in a yard, the footage sits on a shop's recorder, and the dispatch messages may sit on a software vendor's servers. Those are four separate letters, not one.

Is it too late if a week has passed?

For some items possibly, for most no. Camera footage is the usual casualty because retention is often measured in days. Records held under retention rules, driver files and maintenance histories are generally still there, and physical evidence survives until somebody repairs or scraps the vehicle. Start at the top of the list anyway; the worst outcome of asking late is being told something is gone, which is itself worth knowing.

What if I do not know who the trucking company is?

That is a normal starting position and it is one of the items on the list rather than a prerequisite for using it. The report number and attending agency will usually get you the basic identification, and working out the full set of companies behind a commercial vehicle is investigative work an attorney does. Until that is done, demands can still go to the parties you can identify, including any storage facility.

How long do businesses keep camera footage?

We have not put a number on it because it varies enormously by system and by business, and a figure quoted here could be wrong for the shop that matters. What is safe to say is that it is short, often measured in days, that the cycle runs automatically whether or not anybody has asked, and that nobody will notify you when your window closes. Treat it as the most urgent thing on the list after the vehicles.

Does the tally tell me anything about my case?

Nothing at all, and it is built so it cannot. The count records what has been done, not whether a claim is strong, weak, viable or worth anything. This site publishes no case valuations and a checklist implying one would be worse than useless to somebody in their first week after a catastrophic crash. If you want to understand what actually drives value, the case value and settlement guides deal with it honestly.

Are my ticks saved if I come back?

No. Nothing is stored and nothing is transmitted, so reloading clears everything. That is deliberate, and it is why there is a print button rather than a save. Printing also gives you something physical to hand to whoever is helping you, which is more useful than a browser tab in the week this list is meant for.

Do I have to pay anything up front?

Injury firms generally work on a contingency basis, meaning the fee is a percentage of what is recovered set out in the written agreement and there is nothing to pay up front. Case costs, meaning experts and records and filing fees, are a separate item from the fee, and the agreement should say plainly who carries them and what happens to them if the case does not succeed.

Is what I tell you private?

Yes. What you share in a case review is kept private and is used only to match you with an attorney who fits your situation. One distinction is worth understanding: true legal confidentiality, called attorney-client privilege, only attaches once you actually have an attorney-client relationship with a lawyer. Submitting a form to a referral service is not the same thing. If that matters to you, raise it directly with the attorney.

What does it cost to use MVA Lawyer Network?

Nothing. We are a free, independent referral service, not a law firm, and we do not give legal advice. Requesting a case review costs you nothing and puts you under no obligation. When a situation fits, we connect you with an independent attorney who reviews it directly, and we may be paid a referral fee by that attorney. That fee does not add anything on top of their percentage.

The wording is rarely the problem. The envelope is.

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