How to Find Someone by License Plate After an Accident — 2025 Guide

🚗 1. Why You Need to Find the Driver After an Accident

After a motor vehicle accident — particularly a hit-and-run where the other driver leaves the scene without exchanging information — the license plate number is frequently the single most valuable piece of evidence the victim possesses. A license plate number is the key that unlocks the identity of the registered vehicle owner through DMV registration records, and from the owner’s identity, professional investigation can determine the driver at the time of the accident, the vehicle’s insurance coverage, the owner’s and driver’s current address for service of process, and the financial resources available to satisfy a damages claim. Without identifying the other driver, the victim may be left to absorb their own medical expenses, vehicle repair costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering with no ability to pursue the person who caused the harm. This guide explains every available method — from police reports and DMV records to professional skip tracing and OSINT investigation — for converting a license plate number into the identity and location of the person responsible for an accident. 📋

🚨 2. Immediate Steps After an Accident or Hit-and-Run

🏛️ 3. DMV Records — Vehicle Registration & Owner Information

Every vehicle operating on public roads must be registered with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (or equivalent agency), and the registration record associates the license plate number with the vehicle’s registered owner. DMV registration records are the primary and most authoritative source for converting a license plate number into the identity of the person who owns the vehicle: 🏛️

The critical limitation of DMV records is that the registered owner is not necessarily the person who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident. The vehicle may be owned by one person (a parent, spouse, employer, leasing company, or rental car company) and driven by another. However, identifying the registered owner is the essential first step because the owner can identify who was driving, and in many jurisdictions the owner bears vicarious liability for permissive use of their vehicle — meaning the owner may be liable for damages caused by someone they allowed to drive their vehicle, even if the owner wasn’t present during the accident. Professional investigation bridges the gap between the registered owner and the actual driver through identity verification, known associate analysis, and comprehensive background investigation. 📋

⚖️ 4. The DPPA — Legal Access to DMV Records

The Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) is the federal law that governs who can access DMV records and for what purposes. The DPPA was enacted in 1994 to protect the privacy of individuals’ motor vehicle records while still allowing legitimate access for specified purposes. Understanding the DPPA is essential because it determines whether and how you can obtain the registered owner’s information from a license plate number: ⚖️

DPPA Permissible Purposes That Apply to Accident Cases: Several DPPA provisions authorize access to DMV records for accident-related investigations. These include use in connection with any civil, criminal, administrative, or arbitral proceeding in any court or government agency (this covers accident lawsuits, insurance disputes, and enforcement actions), use in connection with the investigation of motor vehicle accidents (which directly applies to identifying the at-fault driver), use by insurance companies in connection with claims investigation and underwriting activities, use by licensed private investigators for purposes permitted under the DPPA, and use by attorneys in anticipation of litigation. Accident victims pursuing the at-fault driver have strong DPPA-compliant grounds for accessing DMV records because their purpose — identifying the person responsible for the accident to pursue legal remedies — falls squarely within multiple permissible use categories under the statute. 📋

How to Access DMV Records: The practical process for accessing DMV records varies by state. Some states allow direct online plate lookups for authorized requestors who certify their DPPA-compliant purpose. Other states require written requests submitted by mail with processing fees and signed certifications of permissible purpose. Many states restrict direct access to law enforcement, attorneys, and licensed investigators, requiring individual accident victims to access records through their attorney, insurance company, or a licensed private investigator who can certify the DPPA-compliant purpose. Professional skip tracing services have established DPPA-compliant access channels in all 50 states and can conduct plate-to-owner searches efficiently as part of a comprehensive accident investigation. 🔍

👮 5. Police Reports & Law Enforcement Channels

Police Reports as Information Sources: When police respond to an accident and take a report, the responding officer typically records both parties’ information — including name, address, driver’s license number, license plate, vehicle description, and insurance information. If the other driver was present when police arrived, their identifying information should be captured in the police report regardless of whether they gave it to you directly. Obtaining a copy of the police report is one of the simplest and most reliable ways to get the other driver’s identity — most jurisdictions make accident reports available to involved parties within a few days to a few weeks after the accident, either online or through the records department of the responding police agency. 👮

Hit-and-Run Investigation: For hit-and-run accidents where the other driver fled before police arrived, the police report creates an official record of the incident and the plate number you provide. Law enforcement has unrestricted access to DMV records and can run the plate immediately to identify the registered owner. In serious hit-and-run cases involving injury or significant property damage, police will actively investigate — running the plate, visiting the registered owner’s address, examining the vehicle for accident-consistent damage, and attempting to identify and interview the driver. For less serious hit-and-runs (property damage only, no injuries), police investigation may be limited due to resource constraints, which is where private investigation and professional skip tracing become essential for identifying and locating the at-fault driver so the victim can pursue civil remedies independently of the criminal investigation. 🔍

📋 6. Insurance Investigation & Claims Process

Your Insurance Company’s Role: When you report an accident to your own insurance company and provide the other vehicle’s license plate number, your insurance company’s claims investigators will run the plate through their own databases and DMV access channels to identify the registered owner and their insurance carrier. Insurance companies have broad DPPA-compliant access to DMV records for claims investigation purposes, and they maintain inter-company databases (such as the ISO ClaimSearch database) that link vehicles and owners to insurance policies across all carriers. If the at-fault driver has insurance, your insurer will identify their carrier and initiate the subrogation process to recover your damages from the at-fault driver’s policy. 📋

Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Situations: If the plate lookup reveals that the at-fault driver has no insurance — or their policy limits are insufficient to cover your damages — your own uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage becomes the primary source of recovery for your medical expenses, lost wages, and property damage. Even in this situation, identifying the at-fault driver through the plate is necessary because most UM/UIM policies require the insured to identify the at-fault driver or demonstrate that reasonable efforts were made to identify them. In some states, a hit-and-run victim must file a police report and make reasonable identification efforts before UM/UIM coverage is triggered. Professional investigation that demonstrates thorough efforts to identify the driver satisfies these policy requirements and strengthens the UM/UIM claim even when the driver ultimately cannot be located. 🏥

🔍 7. Professional Skip Tracing & Vehicle Owner Location

Professional skip tracing takes the license plate investigation far beyond the basic plate-to-owner lookup that DMV records provide. Once the registered owner is identified through DMV registration data, professional skip tracing builds a comprehensive profile of the owner that includes their current residential address (which may differ from the address on the registration if they’ve moved since registering the vehicle), their current phone number, their current employer (critical for wage garnishment if judgment is obtained), their assets and property ownership (relevant for judgment liens and asset levies), their complete address history, their known associates and household members (to help identify the actual driver if it wasn’t the registered owner), and their criminal record (which may reveal prior DUI convictions, reckless driving history, or a pattern of traffic offenses relevant to the current accident). 📊

Professional investigation is particularly critical when the registered owner has moved from the address on file with the DMV — which happens frequently since people don’t always update their vehicle registration immediately after moving. SSN-based skip tracing and DOB-verified searches locate the owner at their actual current address regardless of whether they’ve updated their registration, ensuring that service of process and insurance claims reach the correct person at a valid, current address. 📍

🔢 8. Partial License Plates & Incomplete Information

One of the most common challenges in accident investigation is working with a partial license plate — the victim saw some but not all of the characters on the plate, or the plate was partially obscured by dirt, damage, or viewing angle. While a partial plate makes identification more difficult, it doesn’t make it impossible: 🔢

Narrowing the Search: A partial plate combined with the vehicle’s make, model, color, body style, and state of registration can narrow the universe of possible matches to a manageable number. Law enforcement databases can search for plates matching the known characters with wildcards for the missing characters, filtered by the vehicle description. For example, a partial plate of “AB_-_234” on a white Toyota Camry registered in California narrows to a very small number of potential matches that can be investigated individually. Professional investigators work with law enforcement and DPPA-compliant database access to run these partial plate searches and identify the most likely match based on all available descriptive information. 🔍

Supplemental Evidence: When the plate number is only partially captured, supplemental evidence becomes critical for narrowing the vehicle identification. Dashcam footage from your vehicle or from other vehicles in traffic may have captured the full plate at a different angle. Surveillance cameras from nearby businesses, traffic cameras, and red light cameras may have recorded the vehicle with a clearer view of the plate. Witness accounts may fill in the missing characters or provide additional vehicle description details. If the accident occurred on a toll road, the toll collection system may have recorded the plate through electronic toll reading. Requesting this supplemental evidence promptly — before surveillance footage is overwritten (typically within 30-90 days) — is essential for maximizing the chances of full plate identification. 📹

🌐 9. Social Media & OSINT Investigation

Social media investigation and OSINT techniques provide additional investigative channels that supplement DMV records and database searches, particularly in complex accident cases: 🌐

Vehicle Identification Through Social Media: Many people post photographs of their vehicles on social media — on Facebook, Instagram, car enthusiast groups, and vehicle selling platforms. If you have a vehicle description but only a partial plate, searching social media for posts containing photos of matching vehicles in the geographic area of the accident may identify the specific vehicle and its owner. People who are proud of their vehicles frequently post identifiable photos showing the plate number, distinctive modifications, or other features that match the vehicle involved in the accident. Local Facebook groups, neighborhood groups, and community forums are also productive channels — posting a description of the hit-and-run vehicle and asking community members to help identify it often generates leads from people who recognize the vehicle from their own neighborhood. 📱

OSINT for Driver Investigation: Once the registered owner is identified through DMV records, OSINT investigation provides additional intelligence about the owner and potential driver. Social media profiles reveal the owner’s associates and household members who may have been driving, posts or check-ins that may place the owner at a specific location at the time of the accident establishing or refuting their presence behind the wheel, and in some cases admissions or references to the accident itself that constitute evidence of awareness and potential liability. OSINT investigation also identifies whether the vehicle has been involved in prior accidents, whether it’s been listed for sale after the accident (suggesting consciousness of guilt), and whether the owner has a pattern of reckless driving behavior documented in online posts. 🔍

🏃 10. Hit-and-Run Investigation — Criminal & Civil Remedies

Criminal Consequences: Leaving the scene of an accident (hit-and-run) is a criminal offense in every state. The severity of the charge depends on whether the accident involved property damage only (typically a misdemeanor), injury to another person (often a felony), or death (a serious felony in all states). A driver convicted of hit-and-run faces potential penalties including jail or prison time, substantial fines, driver’s license suspension or revocation, restitution to the victim, and a permanent criminal record. The criminal case proceeds through the local prosecutor’s office, and the victim’s role is primarily as a witness — but the criminal investigation’s identification of the driver directly supports the victim’s civil case for damages. 🚨

Civil Remedies: Independent of the criminal case, the accident victim can pursue civil remedies against the at-fault driver — filing a lawsuit for personal injury damages, property damage, medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and any other damages caused by the accident. The civil lawsuit requires identifying the at-fault driver by name and current address for service of process. Once the lawsuit is filed and a judgment is obtained, the victim becomes a judgment creditor with access to all available enforcement tools — including wage garnishment, asset levies, property liens, and writs of execution — to collect the damages awarded by the court. For drivers without insurance or with insufficient policy limits, civil judgment enforcement through professional asset investigation and persistent collection efforts may be the only path to full financial recovery. ⚖️

📜 11. Serving Legal Papers on the At-Fault Driver

Before any civil lawsuit can proceed, the at-fault driver must be properly served with the complaint and summons in accordance with the jurisdiction’s rules of civil procedure. Professional skip tracing plays a critical role in this process by providing the verified, current address needed for successful service of process: 📜

Service Challenges: At-fault drivers — particularly hit-and-run drivers who have already demonstrated willingness to avoid accountability — may be difficult to serve because they’ve moved from the address on their vehicle registration, they avoid answering the door when they suspect a process server, or they provide a false or outdated address on their vehicle registration and driver’s license. When the address on file with the DMV is no longer current, professional skip tracing identifies the driver’s actual current residential address through SSN-based searching, employer location (for service at the workplace when authorized by the jurisdiction’s rules), and address verification through multiple independent data sources that confirm where the driver actually lives — not just where their registration says they live. 📍

Service When Driver Cannot Be Located: If thorough professional skip tracing and multiple service attempts are unsuccessful, the attorney can petition the court for authorization to use alternative service methods — service by publication, service by posting, or other methods the court deems reasonably calculated to provide notice. The documentation of thorough search efforts (professional skip tracing report, process server affidavits of multiple attempted services, DMV records showing the registration address is no longer valid) provides the evidentiary foundation that courts require before authorizing alternative service, and this documentation is strengthened substantially by professional investigation records that demonstrate every reasonable avenue was exhausted before requesting the alternative method. ⚖️

💰 12. Judgment Collection After an Accident

Winning a judgment against an at-fault driver is only the first step — collecting the judgment amount requires identifying the debtor’s assets, income, and financial resources and applying the appropriate enforcement tools. Professional skip tracing and asset investigation are essential for effective post-judgment collection: 💰

Identifying Assets and Income: After obtaining a judgment against the at-fault driver, the creditor needs to identify the debtor’s employment for wage garnishment, real property ownership for judgment liens, vehicles and personal property for levies, and financial accounts for potential account levies. Professional asset investigation reveals the debtor’s complete financial picture and identifies the most effective enforcement path. For debtors who attempt to avoid collection by transferring assets to family members, friends, or LLCs and trusts, professional investigation identifies these fraudulent conveyances and supports legal action to reverse the transfers and recover the assets for judgment satisfaction. 📊

The Cost of Not Collecting: Accident judgments represent compensation for real injuries, real medical expenses, real property damage, and real suffering that the victim endured through no fault of their own. Failing to pursue collection aggressively means the victim absorbs these costs while the at-fault driver escapes financial accountability. Judgments in most states remain enforceable for 10-20 years and can be renewed, giving the creditor a long enforcement window during which the debtor’s financial circumstances may improve. For state-specific guidance on judgment collection procedures and timelines, see our judgment collection by state directory. ⏰

⚠️ 13. Common Challenges & How to Overcome Them

• Stolen or Borrowed Plates: If the license plate on the hit-and-run vehicle was stolen from another vehicle or borrowed temporarily, the DMV registration will lead to the plate’s legitimate owner — not the driver who caused the accident. This discrepancy is usually discovered quickly when the registered owner denies involvement. Investigation then shifts to identifying the actual vehicle and driver through physical evidence, surveillance footage, and witness descriptions. ⚠️
• Vehicle Owned by a Business, LLC, or Leasing Company: When DMV records show the vehicle is registered to a corporation, LLC, fleet management company, or leasing company rather than an individual, additional investigation is needed to identify the specific person who was driving. Entity research identifies the people behind business entities, and the vehicle owner/lessor can be compelled through legal process to identify who had possession of the vehicle at the time of the accident. 🏢
• Out-of-State Plates: Plates from other states are searchable through the same DPPA-compliant channels, though the specific DMV access procedures vary by state. Professional skip tracing services maintain access to all 50 states’ DMV records and can conduct out-of-state plate searches as efficiently as in-state searches. If the driver lives in another state, you may need to file your lawsuit in their home state or establish jurisdiction in the state where the accident occurred. 🗺️
• Temporary or Dealer Plates: Temporary registration plates and dealer plates present identification challenges because they may not yet be in the standard DMV registration system or may be associated with the dealership rather than the individual buyer. Investigation through the issuing dealership — compelled by subpoena if necessary — identifies the purchaser who was driving under the temporary plate at the time of the accident. 📋
• Driver Has Moved Since Registration: The address on the vehicle registration may be outdated if the driver has moved since registering the vehicle. Professional skip tracing for people who moved identifies the driver’s actual current address regardless of whether they’ve updated their registration — ensuring that service of process, insurance correspondence, and collection efforts reach the correct person at their real address. 📍

🔎 14. Professional Investigation Services

Professional investigation provides the comprehensive, verified, and legally compliant results that self-directed searches and consumer websites cannot deliver. Our plate-to-person investigation process begins with DPPA-compliant DMV record access to identify the registered owner, then extends through professional skip tracing databases to verify and update the owner’s current address, locate their current phone number, identify their current employer, examine their criminal driving history, and assess their assets and financial resources for judgment collection planning. For attorneys handling personal injury cases and for accident victims pursuing the at-fault driver independently, our investigation provides the foundation for every subsequent step — from service of process through final judgment collection. 🏆

❓ 15. Frequently Asked Questions

🤔 Can I look up a license plate myself?

Direct public access to DMV registration records is restricted by the DPPA. While some states allow limited access for accident-involved parties who certify their purpose, most states require the request to come through an attorney, insurance company, law enforcement, or licensed investigator. Consumer websites that claim to offer “instant license plate lookups” typically provide only basic vehicle description data (make, model, year) without the registered owner’s identity. Professional investigation through DPPA-compliant channels is the most reliable method for obtaining the complete owner identification you need. 🏛️

🤔 What if the plate belongs to a rental car company?

If DMV records show the vehicle is registered to a rental car company (Hertz, Enterprise, Avis, etc.), the investigation shifts to identifying who rented the vehicle at the time of the accident. Rental companies maintain detailed records of who rented each vehicle on each date, and these records can be obtained through subpoena or attorney request. The rental company may also have insurance information for the renter. 🚗

🤔 How long after an accident can I still pursue the other driver?

The statute of limitations for personal injury and property damage claims varies by state — typically two to six years from the date of the accident, with most states allowing two to three years for personal injury claims. The clock starts ticking on the date of the accident, making prompt investigation essential. Even if you don’t file a lawsuit immediately, identifying the other driver early preserves your ability to file within the limitations period and prevents evidence from being lost or degraded over time. ⏰

🤔 What if the other driver has no insurance?

If the at-fault driver is uninsured, you may recover damages through your own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage, through a civil lawsuit against the driver personally, or both. An uninsured at-fault driver is personally liable for all damages they caused, and a judgment against them can be enforced through wage garnishment, asset levies, and property liens for years until fully satisfied. 💰

🤔 Can dashcam footage help identify a license plate?

Absolutely — dashcam footage is one of the most valuable pieces of evidence in hit-and-run cases. High-quality dashcam cameras can capture clear images of license plates, vehicle descriptions, and driver appearances. If your own dashcam didn’t capture the plate, check with other drivers who were nearby and may have dashcam footage, and request surveillance footage from nearby businesses and traffic cameras promptly. 📹

🤔 What if I only have a partial plate number?

A partial plate combined with the vehicle’s make, model, color, and state of registration significantly narrows the possible matches. Law enforcement and professional investigators can run partial plate searches filtered by vehicle description to identify likely matches. Supplementing the partial plate with surveillance camera footage, witness statements, and dashcam evidence from other drivers often fills in the missing characters and enables full identification. 🔢

🚀 16. Get Professional Investigation Help

At PeopleLocatorSkipTracing.com, we’ve been providing professional skip tracing, investigation, and vehicle owner identification services since 2004. Our DPPA-compliant license plate investigation converts plate numbers into verified registered owner identities with current addresses, phone numbers, employer information, and asset profiles — giving accident victims, personal injury attorneys, insurance companies, and investigators everything they need to pursue legal remedies and collect the compensation owed. Results in 24 hours or less. ⚡