How to Send Dashcam Footage to Your Insurance Company
This is general information, not legal advice.
Save the original file before the camera loops over it — pull the memory card or lock the clip the same day. Copy the whole card, not just the crash. Never edit, trim, or re-encode the original; edits raise authenticity questions. Send the unaltered file through your insurer's claims portal with a short, factual note giving the date, time, and the timestamp range of the incident. And know the honest part: footage cuts both ways — if it shows you speeding or following too closely, the other side will use it, so consider having a lawyer watch it before you send it anywhere.
We make dashcams, so you'd expect us to tell you footage always saves the day. It usually helps. Sometimes it hurts. This page covers how to preserve it, how to send it, and the situations where you should slow down before handing it over — including the parts most dashcam companies leave out. For state reporting deadlines and where to find a lawyer, see the after-a-crash resources.
Save it before the loop erases it
Nearly every dashcam records in a loop, overwriting the oldest footage once the card fills. Depending on card size and resolution, that can be a matter of hours. The single most common way good evidence disappears is that nobody touched the camera for a day.
If the car is drivable and you're safe, do one of these right now: press the lock or emergency-save button if your camera has one, or power the camera down and remove the memory card entirely. If you were taken from the scene by ambulance, ask someone you trust to get the card out of the car.
Copy the entire card, not just the crash clip. The minutes before impact often matter more than the impact itself — they establish following distance, lane position, and signal timing. Footage after the crash can document the other driver's behavior and the position of the vehicles.
Never edit the original
Keep two things: the untouched original exactly as it came off the card, and a copy you can share. Work only from the copy.
Do not trim, crop, brighten, rotate, add captions, or re-encode the original, and do not film your screen with your phone. Every one of those creates a file that no longer matches what the camera wrote, which gives an adjuster a reason to question whether it's authentic. Keep the native format — usually MP4 or MOV.
If your camera's clock is wrong, say so plainly when you submit it. A wrong timestamp is a small problem. A wrong timestamp that you didn't mention is a credibility problem.
How to actually send it
Tell your adjuster early that you have video — it changes how the claim gets handled from the start. Then ask how they want to receive it, because file sizes are the usual snag.
- Claims portal: most major insurers accept uploads directly in the claim, usually under "attach documents" or "add evidence."
- Cloud link: for large files, upload the original to Google Drive or Dropbox and share a view link. Cleanest option for anything over about 100 MB.
- Physical media: some claims centers will take a USB drive in person. Bring the original card as backup and don't leave it with anyone.
Include a short written note with the file: the date and time, the location, and the timestamp range where the incident occurs ("collision at 4:12 into the clip"). If your camera logs GPS separately, include that too.
Describe, don't conclude
Keep your description factual and short. "At 4:12 the silver sedan crosses the center line and strikes the front driver's side of my vehicle" is useful. "The other driver was clearly reckless and is at fault" is not — it's an opinion, it's yours, and it invites an argument you don't need to have.
Don't speculate about speed you can't measure, don't guess at what the other driver was doing inside their car, and don't admit fault. Let the video be the evidence and let the adjuster reach the conclusion.
Your own footage can be used against you
This is the part you won't read on most dashcam websites, and it's the reason to think before you send.
Adjusters review video frame by frame, and they are looking for anything that shifts fault onto you: a few miles over the limit, a rolling stop, following too closely, a glance down at the moment it mattered. Most states apportion fault by percentage, so even a small share reduces what you recover — and in many states, being found more than half responsible bars recovery entirely.
That doesn't mean hide it. Once a claim is likely, deleting relevant footage can be treated as destruction of evidence, which is far worse than an unflattering video. It means: watch the whole clip yourself first, and if there's any chance it cuts against you or the injuries are serious, have a lawyer look at it before you send it anywhere. Your state's bar referral service and free legal aid are listed on the resources page.
Yours versus theirs
These aren't the same request. Your own policy almost certainly contains a cooperation clause requiring you to share relevant information with your insurer.
The other driver's insurer is a different matter — you generally aren't required to hand them your footage voluntarily before any lawsuit is filed, and their adjuster is not working on your behalf. If the other side asks for your video, that's the moment to talk to a lawyer rather than to reply helpfully. (Once litigation begins, footage is normally discoverable either way, which is one more reason not to delete anything.)
The microphone is a separate legal question
Recording video of a public road is legal essentially everywhere in the US. Audio is not so simple: some states require the consent of everyone being recorded for a private conversation, and a dashcam microphone running inside your car can capture exactly that.
The practical consequences: an audio track recorded without required consent may be excluded, and in some circumstances recording it at all can be a legal problem of its own — separate from your crash.
Two things worth doing. Find out whether your state requires one-party or all-party consent, and if you carry passengers who don't know they're being recorded, consider simply turning the microphone off. Most dashcams have a setting for it. Video is what wins claims; audio rarely is.
Don't post it publicly
The urge to put a satisfying clip on social media is understandable and it can cost you real money. Your caption becomes a statement about the crash, the comments become context, and anything you wrote in the heat of the moment can be quoted back at you by the other side.
Wait until the claim is closed. The video isn't going anywhere — you saved the original, on purpose, at the top of this page.
← State-by-state deadlines, reports, and free legal help
Dashwatcher is a dashcam company, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice or a substitute for a licensed attorney. Insurance procedures, recording-consent rules, and fault rules differ by state and change over time; verify anything you rely on with your insurer, your state's insurance department, or an attorney. Dashwatcher receives no payment from any organization listed.
From the team at Dashwatcher.
Last verified: August 3, 2026