Police Reports and the Evidence That Wins Car Accident Lawsuits in Houston w. Hank Stout

The police report is just the starting point. Hank Stout, Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law and co-founder of Sutliff & Stout Injury & Accident Law Firm, sits down with Abby to break down every type of evidence that wins car accident lawsuits in Harris County. Questions answered in this episode: Why is the police accident report important in Houston car accident claims? How do Texas insurance companies use the police report against injured drivers? Can you challenge an officer's fault opinion in a Harris County civil lawsuit? Topics covered: police crash report narrative and contributing factor codes, the Texas green form, insurance adjuster tactics, officer fault opinion admissibility, accident scene photography, ECM and black box data, body cam and dash cam footage, accident reconstruction, crush analysis, traffic citation admissibility, guilty plea vs. no-contest in civil proceedings, and life care plans. Texas statutes and rules referenced: Transportation Code Chapter 550 (crash reporting and green form filing), Texas Rules of Evidence (guilty plea vs. no-contest admissibility in civil proceedings), and Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code Chapter 41 (harms and losses, elements of damages). Hank Stout on police reports vs. photographs: "If you have a photograph that directly contradicts what the report is saying, the photograph to me is more compelling than the police report because you have a piece of physical evidence that shows the location of the vehicles." Hank Stout on body cam footage: "The body cam captures exactly what they said. That is a great source of evidence that we use to then make sure that people stick to the story that they originally gave, not the story that the insurance company wants them to tell." Hank Stout, Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law and Texas Super Lawyer since 2012, handles car and truck accident cases on contingency - no fee unless you win.