No Insurance Information on Your Accident Report? Here Is What Maryland Drivers Need to Know
You did everything right after your accident. You called the police, took photos, and waited for an officer to complete a report. Then you received that report and found nothing useful where the at-fault driver’s insurance information should be. No company name, no policy number, nothing. Attorney Joebeth Bowers of Bowers Law addressed this scenario directly on the Monday Morning Lawyer podcast, revisiting a topic that his office has been encountering with increasing frequency, particularly in cases involving out-of-state drivers, rental cars, and commercial vehicles.
Why Police Reports Sometimes Contain No Usable Insurance Information
When an accident happens in Maryland between two Maryland drivers operating Maryland-registered vehicles, law enforcement has access to tools that allow them to verify coverage through the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. That process is relatively straightforward. But when the at-fault driver is from out of state, or is driving a vehicle registered elsewhere, those tools stop working. Officers at the scene can only work with what they are handed, and they have no access to insurance databases in other states. The systems across all fifty states are not standardized, and in many cases they are not even close to compatible.
Attorney Bowers pointed out that when a driver is operating a rental car, the situation becomes even more complicated. Rental vehicles do not have a standard insurance card in the glove box. What they contain is a rental contract that is dense, difficult to read, and rarely yields useful information even when an officer takes the time to look at it. Add to that the fact that many drivers rely on their own personal auto policy rather than purchasing the rental company’s supplemental coverage, and the insurance trail becomes nearly impossible to follow at the scene.
How Insurance Companies Benefit From This Confusion
Attorney Bowers was candid about something that does not get discussed enough. Insurance companies are aware that complexity works in their favor. When the process of identifying the right insurer, locating a policy number, and establishing a claim is frustrating enough, some injured people simply give up. That outcome is cheaper for the insurance company than paying a fair claim, and Attorney Bowers noted that the convoluted nature of these systems is not always accidental. Some companies have effectively built friction into the process as a cost-saving measure, leaving injured drivers spinning their wheels with no clear path forward.
This dynamic is not limited to out-of-state drivers. Attorney Bowers described how his office once spent nearly a week tracking down the correct insurance carrier after a client was hit by a commercial delivery vehicle. The report listed only a company name, not an insurer, and working through the chain of coverage took extensive research even for attorneys whose entire practice is built around exactly this kind of work. For someone with no experience navigating commercial insurance structures, that same search could take far longer, with no guarantee of finding the right answer.
What Bowers Law Can Do That Most Drivers Cannot Do on Their Own
Attorney Bowers described a service available to Maryland attorneys that allows them to query the MVA directly using a license plate or driver’s license number and receive insurance information in return. This tool is not available to the general public. It works well for in-state vehicles but does not extend to out-of-state drivers or out-of-state registrations. For those cases, his office relies on a network of attorneys and resources across different states, because the process for tracking down coverage varies depending on where the vehicle is from.
The same challenge applies across a range of at-fault drivers, including rideshare operators, delivery drivers, and large commercial trucks. Each type of vehicle can carry multiple overlapping layers of coverage, and determining which policy actually applies to a given accident requires experience and access to resources that most injured people simply do not have. Attorney Bowers was direct: his office exists precisely to take this burden off the client and handle the investigation so that injured drivers can focus on recovering.
What Every Maryland Driver Should Know Before an Accident Happens
The most important takeaway from Attorney Bowers is that a police report with incomplete or missing insurance information does not mean a case is unworkable. It means the work of finding that information falls to whoever is handling the claim. If you are handling it yourself, that process can be overwhelming and is likely to result in delays or dead ends. If an experienced injury attorney is handling it, the tools, the contacts, and the process are already in place.
Attorney Bowers also reminded listeners that protecting yourself through your own insurance policy before an accident happens is one of the most practical steps you can take. You cannot always know who will hit you, where they are from, or what coverage they are carrying. Building adequate protection into your own policy is something his office can help evaluate, and during the month of April, Bowers Law is offering a free insurance policy review and report card for anyone who submits their policy, with a prize drawing for those who participate.
Final Thoughts
Finding the insurance information for an at-fault driver who is from out of state, driving a rental car, or operating a commercial vehicle is not a straightforward process. The systems are inconsistent, the paperwork is difficult to interpret, and insurance companies have little incentive to make it easier. Attorney Joebeth Bowers and his team at Bowers Law have handled exactly these situations and know how to navigate them.
If you have been in an accident and cannot identify the responsible insurance carrier, reach out to Bowers Law at info@bowerslawmd.com.
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