Your personal injury case may depend a lot on the 911 call. This could be true whether you had a herniated disc, tore your shoulder in a car accident, or slipped and fell at Publix or Walmart.
During the 911 call, the caller may have told the operator how bad your injury was or who caused the accident. Maybe the person who called said you were having pain. This could help if the defendant later says that the accident didn’t hurt you or that you were to blame. After all, you want to make sure that the at-fault person compensates you for all your pain and suffering and does not blame you for causing the accident.
Also, as time goes on, witnesses might not want to help with the claim. With the audio of the 911 call, this witness, who may be deposed, will confirm important details they may have forgotten. All too often, witnesses refuse to help in a personal injury case even though they called 911, which is a shame. And, it is possible that the 911 recording may give you the names and/or phone numbers of other witnesses you may not have known about.
You should know, however, that you may only be able to obtain the 911 audio recording over a limited period of time. In Miami-Dade County, for example, 911 calls are only retained for 60 days following the accident. As such, the injured person should act quickly to obtain the 911 audio recording or risk losing it forever. And know, it is possible that this 60-day time period may even decrease based on the internal operations of the county and some counties may have longer/shorter periods than Miami-Dade County. As such, the sooner it is requested, the better.
If you do not want to contact the County to obtain the 911 audio recording directly, you should consider hiring a Personal Injury Attorney who can request it on your behalf. You just do not want the evidence to no longer be available as it may be critical to you prevailing on your personal injury case or even the amount of the settlement.
We want to be your lawyers if you were hurt in an accident in Florida. Get a free consultation right now by calling us at (305) 774-0134. There are no costs or fees unless we recover money on your behalf. Hamblamos Espanol!