Distracted driving is becoming far too common on today’s roads, and it should come as no surprise that we’re seeing an uptick in crashes where distracted driving is noted as a contributing factor. If you have been injured in a car accident and you know or have strong reason to believe that the other driver was distracted by their phone, can you force them to turn over their phone records in court? In today’s blog, we talk about your legal rights to subpoena the other driver’s phone records after a car accident.
Getting The Other Driver’s Phone Records
Before we dive into whether you can force the other driver to turn over their phone records after an accident, let’s briefly cover some important laws in Minnesota that are relevant in this situation:
1. Minnesota has a hands-free driving law, meaning that you are not allowed to hold your phone in your hand, dial numbers or send text messages or emails behind the wheel. You are allowed to press one button to answer the call or initiate a hands-free connection, but anything more and you are in violation of the law and would be viewed as a distracted driver in the eyes of the police.
2. Minnesota is a “No Fault” state when it comes to car accidents, meaning that you will file your car accident claim through your own insurance company first. Your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage provides up to $20,000 for medical expenses and $20,000 for lost wages, and oftentimes these thresholds are enough for a victim, regardless of who was at fault.
So while you may have been involved in an accident with a distracted driver, you may not gain much from working hard to prove it in court if expenses are relatively minor. That said, Minnesota allows you to file a personal injury lawsuit against a negligent driver in the event your crash is considered “serious.” Minnesota law defines a serious accident as such:
- You suffered at least $4,000 of medical expenses
- You suffered permanent injury or disfigurement
- You have been unable to work or otherwise disabled for at least 60 days since the accident
- A loved one died as a result of the accident
If any of those factors are true, you can work to prove the other driver was negligent and you are entitled to non-economic damages or additional damages beyond your coverage limitations. Here’s where the phone record subpoena comes in.
While you may attempt to showcase that the other driver was distracted with witness accounts or video evidence, you are legally allowed to file a subpoena to release the other driver’s phone records as a tactic for proving negligence in a Minnesota car accident. Once your personal injury lawsuit has been filed by your attorney, they will then file a subpoena to either the other driver or their phone carrier. The subpoena needs to be clearly defined, as you can’t just ask for access to all their phone records. You’ll want to focus on a specific timeframe, perhaps 15-30 minutes leading up to and after the accident. A lawyer will help ensure this is filed correctly in court, and it should be approved by a judge given the nature of your case.
This subpoena will then require that the driver or their phone carrier turn over:
- Call logs from the listed time frame
- Text messages sent and received
- Relevant data usage logs, including app usage data at the time of the accident
Your lawyer will then pour over this information and use it to build a case that the crash was anything but an accident because the other driver was distracted and negligent. Let our team subpoena these records and build a strong case for you while you focus on your health and your family. For more information about distracted driving cases, or for assistance filing a personal injury lawsuit in Minnesota, reach out to the team at Hey Workers today at (844) 439-9675.
