A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled that the Metropolitan Police Department must immediately hand over traffic collision reports to trial lawyers and other businesses, a practice the police union says opens drivers to identity fraud.
The police department had withheld the reports from lawyers for 21 days after the incident in accordance with a law passed by the D.C. Council last year designed to restrict the information.
But D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff issued an order in favor ofseveral District plaintiff lawyers, including former D.C. Council Member Harold Brazil, that allows businesses to obtain copies of the reports as long as the employee signs a statement swearing that the information will not be used to solicit customers by phone or face-to-face within 21 days of the crash.
The lawyers can solicit crash victims by mail during that time, according to the order.
D.C. Police Union Head Kristopher Baumann said the reports contain personal information such as the driver’s license number, home address and, in some cases, Social Security numbers.
“If you have an accident in the District of Columbia, your identification is gone,” Baumann said. “It’s out there in a database for somebody to do whatever they want to do.”
Union members became concerned a few years ago after police officers noticed dozens of runners going from police station to police station, gathering information from the reports and looking for victims who want a lawyer to settle for them.
The District plans to ask the judge to set aside the motion, D.C. Attorney General Spokesperson Traci Hughes said. The Examiner couldn’t reach the plaintiff’s lawyers late Wednesday.
