Can A Police Officer Testify in A Car Accident Injury Case? Do I Have A Personal Injury Case If The Investigating Police Officer Gave Me a Ticket? Keep in mind Police Officers are not judges or jurors in a personal injury case. However, a police officer’s testimony is considered evidence in court if he/she is allowed to testify. The jury decides the credibility of witnesses and decides who to believe in a trial. Generally, in Michigan a police officer may not testify about fault unless he was an eyewitness to the accident or is qualified to perform accident reconstruction analysis, which your typical police officer is not. A police officer generally can testify about what a party told him or her, as an exception to hearsay. See Declaration Against Interest MRE 804(b)(3). Usually, the only testimony the investigating police officers can give is the physical evidence that he/she observed at the scene of an accident. See Gath v. Bay Auto Auction LLC, No. 266100, 2006 WL 709499, * 3 n.3 (Mich. App. March 21, 2006) (unpublished). Further, the police report is barred from being used in a civil lawsuit by Mich. Comp. Laws § 257.624. Webster v Central Paving Co, 51 Mich App 62, 65 (1974). In Ilins v. Burns, 35 Mich. App. 353; 192 N.W.2d 544 (1971), Michigan Court of Appeals with respect to the admissibility of the issuance or non-issuance of a traffic ticket held: “As such, with the exception of a situation similar to that presented in Dudek, we are of the opinion that [a trial...
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