Obtaining full police accident report for deceased relative

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rangers28

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My friend's brother was involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident recently in NJ. Now, my friend is trying to obtain the full accident report from the State Police, but they are telling him that he can only get a copy of the report with the personal information redacted.

The representative stated that because my friend was not involved in the accident and doesn't own the vehicle involved, he cannot get the full report due to privacy reasons. He reiterated that his brother was killed in the accident and is acting on his behalf to obtain the full report. The rep stated that he would need an attorney to obtain the report. (The deceased was only 24 years old, and had no "estate" to speak of, and the family did not hire any attorney to handle any matters.) The full report was given to the deceased's girlfriend, however, because although she wasn't involved in the accident, he was driving her vehicle at the time.

I inquired further for my friend, and it was apparent that the rep was pretty much just reading from her guidelines, and was unsure about any exceptions. She then told me that a parent/legal guardian can get a copy, but then said that since the deceased was not a minor, that wouldn't apply.

I feel that my friend, or his parents, should be able to obtain the full report, since his brother is deceased. Who is right?
 
Whether or not he had a will, he has an estate. Every deceased does. Somebody can get appointed by the court to be the legal representative of his estate - that can be his brother, his parents, whomever. Sometimes people fight about who should get to be legal representative, but parents are a pretty safe bet. Whoever it is, they should be able to get the complete accident report.

What's riding on this?
 
dee_dub:

First off...thanks for the quick reply!

So would my friend need to show some type of legal document that states that he, or his parents, are the legal rep. of his estate? If so, how do you go about getting that and how long does it take?

The family is still trying to get a good grasp on exactly what happened and who was involved. It seems they've gotten different details depending on who they talk to. As far as the deceased's girlfriend, it seems to want nothing to do with the family and does not return phone calls anymore. Things are just looking a bit odd to them, and they want the full report.
 
They can get that information even from a redacted report ... they know his name, so they can simply fill in the blanks. Plus, the report will likely be written in such a manner as to refer to them as "party one" or "driver one" and language similar to that.

They may not be able to get info on the other parties or witnesses, but why do they need that? Are they fishing for something heinous thinking the girlfriend may have had him killed? If so, where do they come up with that?

- Carl
 
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