What if the police didn't accept the medical certificate issued by a doctor?

The police don't accept the diagnosis

When you are involved in a traffic accident, calling the police is your legal duty. When you call #110, the receiver will ask you if there are any injured people and tell you to stay in the accident scene waiting for the police who are coming to you soon. After a while, the police will arrive.

As you can see from this article "is the damage to humans or properties?", there are two types of accidents: a human injury traffic accident and property damage traffic accident. The difference between them is not depending on a fact whether the victim is injured or not. It depends on whether the victim submits a Medical Certificate with the police or not.

If the victim submits a Medical Certificate, the accident is officially categorized as a human injury traffic accident. That means, the police issue a Certificate of the Accident indicating it was a human injury traffic accident.

If the victim doesn't submit a Medical Certificate, the case will be automatically categorized as a Property Damage Traffic Accident. Policemen sometimes don't accept the medical certificate from ar accident victims. But why? In this article, we explain its reasons and what to do when the policemen didn't accept the doctor's diagnosis.

Police sometimes don't accept the medical certificate

In the case where the victim is not severely injured, police sometimes don't want to register the case as a human injury traffic accident. That's their basic attitude. Some cops even ask the victim, "Is that OK if we register it as a property damage traffic accident? Instead, we report the other party is faulty in this accident." The other police might even refuse to accept the Medical Certificate so that they can register the accident as a property damage traffic accident. They don't want to increase troublesome works.

As mentioned, if the police receive the Medical Certificate from traffic accident victims, they have to register the accident case as a human injury traffic accident. They have to issue several documents as the following:

  1. The document of the referred case
  2. On the spot investigation report
  3. Verbal record of a victim
  4. Verbal record of a witness
  5. Verbal record of an at-fault person

Issuing these documents is troublesome for the police because each of them always has more than dozens of traffic accident cases all the time. Especially, making "On the spot investigation report" is heavy for them because they have to execute on-the-spot investigation in the accident scene. Since it's a kind of cumbersome task for them, they sometimes don't accept the Medical Certificate from victims so that they will not need to register the case as a human injury traffic accident even if someone is injured in the accident.

Can I get the payout for injury from automobile Insurance even if the accident is registered as a property damage traffic accident?

If the police register the case as a property damage traffic accident, it means you won't get the official evidence proving your injury was by a traffic accident. Even without the official evidence, you can get the payout from CALI (Compulsory Automobile Liability Insurance). To get the payout, submit "The written reason why you cannot obtain a certificate of a human injury traffic accident" with CALI. In the document, describe the accident you were involved in was not a property damage traffic accident but a human injury traffic accident. If you submit it with CALI, the payout will be made in many of the cases.

However, if your injury is severe enough to leave even after the treatment is done, we recommend to submit a Medical Certificate with the police and make them register it as a human injury traffic accident.

Demerit for victims

Once you submit a Medical Certificate with the police, you can get the police's certification of a human injury traffic accident. However, we don't always recommend the injured victims to submit a Medical Certificate with the police. To get a Medical Certificate, you have to visit a doctor and pay money for its issuance, which will cost under JPY10,000. For submission of the document, it's necessary to go to the police station managing the area of the accident scene. These steps consume both time and money. Additionally, as you can see from this article on three of the traffic accident liabilities, if you are also faulty in the traffic accident, you might be imposed with both administrative and criminal penalties if you register the case as a human injury traffic accident.

So, we recommend to submit doctor's diagnosis only in the following cases:

1.    Your injury is severe and will possibly leave as residual disability

2.    You and the other party might argue on the percentage of negligence

(In this case, on the spot investigation report might help.) 

Note that any of the insurance does not cover the cost of issuing the doctor's diagnosis for the police and transportation cost for submitting it with the police.