While sitting in the lobby of the Costa Mesa police station, I overheard some interesting exchanges.
One of the services I provide my clients as a personal injury attorney is obtaining their Traffic Collision Report for them. Yesterday, I made the short walk from my house to the Costa Mesa Police Department to get the Traffic Collision Report for a client involved in a rollover car accident in Costa Mesa.
Those were a couple of the interactions I overheard while waiting for a copy of the report. If you were involved in a car accident in Costa Mesa, contact me for assistance handling your claim and obtaining your Traffic Collision Report.
Unfortunately, you cannot request a Costa Mesa police report online. To obtain a Traffic Collision Report from the Costa Mesa Police Department, you must either go to the police station in person or mail a request.
The fastest route to obtain a Costa Mesa police report is to visit the Costa Mesa Police Department in person.
The Costa Mesa Police Department is located at:
99 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
It is open from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays. They are closed on Sundays.
I would recommend calling Costa Mesa Police-Records at (714) 754-5373 before visiting the station to make sure the report is ready. It is not uncommon for a Traffic Collision Report to take several weeks to be completed after a car accident. In collisions involving a fatality/wrongful death, Traffic Collision Reports are more thorough and routinely take multiple months to be completed.
Once at the police station, you will need to fill out a request form and provide valid photo ID. If you are not the person involved in the accident (i.e. you are the spouse of the person involved), you will also need signed, written authorization from the involved party to release the report to you.
There is a $9.00 fee, which can be paid with cash or check made payable to "City of Costa Mesa."
I prefer obtaining Traffic Collision Reports in person because it allows you to obtain the report same day.
Alternatively, you may request a Costa Mesa Traffic Collision Report by mail. This is a slower process, as your request will need to travel to the police department by mail, will be processed in the order it is received, and then once the report is completed it will be mailed back to you. There is typically a 7 to 10 day processing time.
Requests for Costa Mesa Traffic Collision Reports can be mailed to:
Costa Mesa Police Department
P.O. Box 1200
Costa Mesa, CA 92628
Mailed requests must include:
If you were involved in a serious car accident in Costa Mesa, you may have been treated by Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue. Costa Mesa Fire provides paramedic and ambulance services in the city.
Like obtaining the Traffic Collision Report, obtaining your medical and billing records is also important after a car accident. This is another service that the Patzkowski Law Firm provides to its clients.
However, if you wish to request these records yourself, you can do so by submitting a public records request to the City of Costa Mesa through its website. Public records requests are processed by the Costa Mesa City Clerk and/or City Attorney's Office.
Because medical and billing records contain personal and medical information, they are exempt from disclosure without the involved individual’s written consent, pursuant to Government Code § 6255, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
Consequently, upon receiving your public records request, a clerk will contact you to request a signed HIPAA authorization.
Costa Mesa car accident lawyer Blaise Patzkowski is an advocate for the rights of people injured in car accidents, bike accidents, motorcycle accidents, and pedestrian accidents in Costa Mesa, Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, and across California. Mr. Patzkowski is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Hastings College of the Law, and a proud resident of Costa Mesa, California. He has recovered many millions of dollars for people injured in car accidents. If you or your family member was hurt in a car, bicycle, motorcycle, or pedestrian accident, please contact Mr. Patzkowski.
Disclaimer: The information here is general information that should not be taken as legal advice. It cannot be guaranteed to be accurate, current or complete. No attorney-client relationship is established between you and our law firm by reading this article. This article should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a lawyer about the specific facts of your case.
