MV104: How a Simple Form Can Wreck Your Injury Claim

The MV-104 is New York’s official Report of Motor Vehicle Accident — the form a driver or vehicle owner must file with the DMV after a crash that injures someone or causes more than $1,000 in property damage. It is filed under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 605, and the deadline is 10 days from the date of the accident.

Key Takeaways

• The MV-104 is the driver’s accident report required by VTL § 605 when an accident causes any injury or fatality, or property damage exceeding $1,000 to any one person’s property.
• The filing deadline is 10 days from the accident. Missing it can lead to driver’s license and registration suspension under VTL § 605(b) until the report is filed.
• The MV-104A is a different form — the police accident report completed by responding officers; it does not replace the driver’s duty to file the MV-104.
• The MV-104 becomes part of the accident record insurers, defense counsel, and arbitrators look at when evaluating fault, no-fault PIP entitlement, and Insurance Law § 5102(d) serious-injury threshold issues.
• Common filing mistakes — admitting fault in narrative fields, omitting injuries that develop later, misidentifying the point of impact — can damage the no-fault and personal injury claim that follows.
• The form is signed under penalty of perjury. Treat it as a legal document, not paperwork — and consult counsel before signing or filing if injuries are serious or fault is disputed.
• Parked-vehicle, single-vehicle, and commercial-vehicle accidents each have their own reporting nuances under § 605 and the DMV regulations.

What is the MV-104 form?

The MV-104 is the Report of Motor Vehicle Accident that New York drivers and vehicle owners are required to file with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles after a qualifying crash. It is a state-prescribed form created and maintained by the DMV under the authority of Vehicle and Traffic Law § 605, the statute that imposes the duty to report.

Section 605 requires a driver involved in a covered accident to file the MV-104 within 10 days. The report captures core facts about the crash: identities of drivers and owners, vehicles involved, insurance carriers, location, time, weather, road conditions, and the driver’s own narrative description of what happened. It also asks for a diagram of the impact.

The MV-104 is not a police report and does not initiate an insurance claim by itself. It is a separate statutory duty owed to the State of New York. Even when police respond to the scene and prepare their own report (the MV-104A), the driver still owes the DMV a separate MV-104 if § 605’s reporting thresholds are met.

Because the form is signed under penalty of perjury and becomes part of the official accident record, it is treated as a sworn statement. Inconsistencies between the MV-104, the police report, and later testimony are frequently exploited by insurance carriers and defense attorneys in Long Island car accident litigation.

Who needs to file an MV-104 in New York?

VTL § 605 imposes the duty on the driver of any vehicle involved in a covered accident. If the driver is physically unable to file (for example, hospitalized after a serious crash), the vehicle owner has the duty to file instead. The statute also reaches certain other participants:

• Drivers of motor vehicles, motorcycles, and most other registered vehicles involved in the crash.
• Owners of vehicles when the driver is unable to make the report (typically due to injury, incapacitation, or death).
• Operators of bicycles and pedestrians are generally not required to file an MV-104 — the obligation runs to motor vehicle drivers and owners.

The two statutory triggers that require the report are:

• Any injury or death to any person — driver, passenger, pedestrian, cyclist — caused by the accident, regardless of property damage.
• Property damage exceeding $1,000 to the property of any one person.

The $1,000 trigger is per person’s property, not aggregate. A minor fender-bender with two cars each sustaining $700 in damage may not trigger the filing requirement; the same crash with one car suffering $1,200 in damage does.

Parked-vehicle and unattended-property accidents have their own twist. Under VTL § 600, a driver who damages a parked, unattended vehicle (or other property) must locate the owner or leave a note and report the incident — and an MV-104 is required if the § 605 thresholds are met. Commercial vehicles, government vehicles, and accidents involving school buses have additional or supplemental reporting requirements under the regulations that often run alongside the MV-104.

MV-104 deadline — when must it be filed?

The deadline is 10 days from the date of the accident. That clock is fixed by VTL § 605 and runs whether or not police responded, whether or not an insurance claim has been opened, and whether or not the driver is still gathering documents.

Late or missing reports carry direct consequences. Under VTL § 605(b), the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles is authorized to suspend the driver’s license and vehicle registration of any person who fails to file when required. Suspension generally continues until the report is filed and any related administrative steps are completed.

Beyond the administrative penalty, missing the deadline can hurt the underlying personal injury and no-fault case in three practical ways:

• Credibility. A later-filed report — particularly one that surfaces only after counsel becomes involved — invites the argument that the narrative was tailored to the litigation rather than recorded contemporaneously.
• Inconsistency exposure. Memories fade in 10 days. They fade more in 60. A late MV-104 that differs from the police report or medical history hands the defense a credibility wedge.
• Insurance positioning. Adjusters routinely ask for the MV-104 as part of their initial claim review. A missing form is often used to justify delay or denial of investigation.

If the 10-day window has already passed, the form should still be filed — late is better than never. Anyone with a serious injury, contested fault, or potential criminal exposure should consult counsel before completing or filing the form.

How to fill out the MV-104 form correctly

The MV-104 is, on its face, a fill-in-the-blank form. In practice, every field is potential evidence. Steps that minimize damage to a future claim include:

1. Read the form fully before writing anything. Many drivers start in the narrative box and never read the certification block at the bottom — the box where the form is signed under penalty of perjury.
2. Confirm the facts you actually know. Date, time, location, and direction of travel are usually safe. Speed estimates, distances, and reaction times often are not — and a guess locked into a sworn form can be hard to walk back later.
3. Describe the impact, not the cause. “My vehicle was struck on the rear driver’s side bumper while stopped at the light” is a factual description. “I think I might have looked away for a second” is an admission against interest that will be quoted back in every IME report and every defense brief.
4. Be complete about injuries — even the small ones. Soft-tissue, head, and back injuries often present hours or days after the crash. Reporting an obvious injury and noting that the driver was evaluated at the ER preserves the ability to amend later. Reporting “no injuries” when the driver had a headache and went to the hospital that night is a problem.
5. Match the police report on objective facts. Where the police report has a clear error, note it factually in the narrative — do not silently change vehicle positions or times to “correct” the officer.
6. Sign and date legibly. A missing signature can trigger a request for a refiled form, restarting the clock at the DMV and complicating proof of timely filing.

Common mistakes that show up over and over in no-fault arbitration and personal injury cases include admitting fault in the narrative, downplaying injuries, leaving the diagram blank, omitting passengers, and failing to list every involved vehicle. None of this is legal advice for a specific case. Anyone whose accident involved serious injury, alleged drinking or drug use, a fatality, a hit-and-run, or commercial-vehicle issues should consult a New York attorney before signing or filing the MV-104 — the form is permanent record, and the wrong sentence in box 14 can echo through every claim that follows.

MV-104 vs MV-104A vs MV-104EZ — which form?

New York’s accident-reporting forms look similar by name, but they serve different roles and are completed by different people. The most common variants:

• MV-104 — the driver’s report. Required of the driver (or owner, if the driver cannot file) under VTL § 605 when injury or property damage above $1,000 is involved.
• MV-104A — the police accident report. Completed by the responding law-enforcement officer and filed by the agency, not the driver. The MV-104A is what people usually mean when they say “the police report.” It is not a substitute for the driver’s MV-104.
• MV-104EZ / MV-104S and other supplemental variants — the DMV maintains additional and supplemental forms used in specific scenarios (for example, certain low-property-damage situations or to provide supplemental information after the initial filing). The current versions and instructions for each form are published on the NY DMV’s accident-reporting page.

Two practical takeaways:

• The existence of a police report (MV-104A) does not relieve the driver of the duty to file the MV-104. That confusion is the single most common reason drivers miss the 10-day deadline.
• The right form depends on who is filing and what kind of accident it was. If there is any doubt, the safer course is to check the DMV’s current form index — and to ask counsel before treating a supplemental or “EZ” form as a full substitute for the standard MV-104.

How the MV-104 affects your no-fault and personal injury claim

A correctly prepared MV-104 supports the claim. A sloppy one undermines it. The same form is reviewed at four different points in a typical Long Island car accident matter:

No-fault PIP application. The driver’s no-fault carrier reviews the MV-104 alongside the NF-2 application for benefits. Inconsistencies between the MV-104 narrative and the NF-2 — different drivers, different impact points, different injuries — are routinely cited as grounds to delay payment or request additional verification under 11 NYCRR 65-3.5. For background on how those verification rules work, see our review of the no-fault claim verification framework and the related cornerstone on no-fault vs. personal injury lawsuit strategy.

Liability investigation. The bodily-injury carrier (the at-fault driver’s liability insurer) uses the MV-104 narrative and diagram to assess fault for any future personal injury settlement or lawsuit. Statements in box 14 — “I didn’t see them” — become Exhibit A in the carrier’s comparative-negligence argument.

Serious-injury threshold (§ 5102(d)). New York’s no-fault scheme bars most pain-and-suffering recovery unless the plaintiff crosses one of the categories of “serious injury” defined in Insurance Law § 5102(d). An MV-104 that says “no injuries” — even when the driver later develops documented disc herniations or fractures — is used by defense counsel to attack the causation link between the crash and the threshold injury.

Comparative negligence. Under CPLR § 1411, a plaintiff’s recovery is reduced by the percentage of fault attributed to that plaintiff. Statements on the MV-104 are admissions of a party-opponent and can be introduced at trial to support a comparative-fault reduction.

The form is also viewed in coverage disputes, uninsured-motorist (UM) and supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist (SUM) arbitrations, and any subrogation proceeding. For broader context on these intersecting practice areas, our legal encyclopedia and the Long Island car accident practice page collect the related statutory and case-law references.

None of this means avoid filing the MV-104. Filing is mandatory and skipping the form creates its own problems. The point is that the form is a legal document with downstream consequences. Treat it that way — and where stakes are meaningful, get a lawyer’s eyes on it before signing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the MV-104 form?

The MV-104 is New York’s official Report of Motor Vehicle Accident. It is the form a driver (or vehicle owner) is required to file with the New York DMV under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 605 after an accident that injures any person or causes more than $1,000 in property damage to any one person’s property. It captures the parties, vehicles, location, time, and the driver’s narrative and diagram of the crash.

How do I fill out an MV-104?

Read the entire form before writing anything, including the certification at the bottom — the MV-104 is signed under penalty of perjury. Stick to objective facts: date, time, location, vehicles, insurance, and a clear factual description of the impact. Avoid speculation about cause or fault. Report all injuries you are aware of, including those evaluated at the ER. Sign and date legibly, keep a copy, and consult a New York attorney before filing if injuries are serious or fault is contested.

When is the MV-104 due in New York?

The MV-104 is due within 10 days of the accident under VTL § 605. The clock runs regardless of whether police responded, whether an insurance claim has been opened, or whether the driver is still gathering documents. If the 10-day window has already passed, the form should still be filed — late filing is better than no filing, but consult counsel where serious injury, fatalities, or contested fault are involved.

What happens if I don’t file the MV-104?

Failing to file when required exposes the driver to suspension of the driver’s license and vehicle registration under VTL § 605(b), which generally continues until the report is filed. Practically, a missing or late MV-104 also damages credibility, supplies the insurance carrier a basis to delay investigation, and creates inconsistency problems for any future no-fault or personal injury claim arising from the crash.

Where do I send the MV-104 form?

The completed MV-104 is filed with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles per the mailing instructions on the current form. The DMV publishes the form and instructions on its official site. Drivers should keep a copy of the completed form, proof of mailing (or electronic submission confirmation), and any attachments. Where the accident involves serious injury, the form should be reviewed by counsel before it is sent.

Is the MV-104 the same as the police accident report?

No. The MV-104 is the driver’s report. The MV-104A is the police accident report completed by the responding officer and filed by the police agency. The two reports are separate, are sometimes inconsistent, and serve different purposes. The existence of an MV-104A police report does not satisfy the driver’s separate duty under VTL § 605 to file the MV-104.

Can my lawyer file the MV-104 for me?

A lawyer can review the form, help the driver complete it correctly, and assist with the mechanics of filing, but the report is the driver’s (or owner’s) statement signed under penalty of perjury. The driver remains the signatory. Where injuries, criminal exposure, or contested fault are in play, having counsel review the MV-104 before it is signed and filed is the single most effective step a driver can take to protect a future no-fault or personal injury claim.

Talk to a Long Island attorney before the 10-day MV-104 deadline runs out

The MV-104 looks routine and isn’t. It is a sworn statement filed under VTL § 605 that drives how insurers, arbitrators, and judges evaluate every later step in the claim — the no-fault PIP application, the bodily-injury negotiation, the § 5102(d) threshold analysis, and any comparative-negligence defense. The 10-day deadline is short and the consequences of getting it wrong are durable.

If the accident caused injury, contested fault, or potential coverage issues, talk to a lawyer before the form is signed and filed. The Law Office of Jason Tenenbaum, P.C. handles the full range of post-crash work — from no-fault defense and arbitration to Long Island car accident litigation — and reviews MV-104 filings as part of every new accident intake.

Initial consultations are free. Call (516) 750-0595 to talk to an attorney about the MV-104, the underlying no-fault claim, or any other issue arising from a New York car accident. For more practice-area background and statutory references, see the firm’s legal encyclopedia.

This article is general information about New York accident-reporting requirements and is not legal advice for any specific case. Whether and how to complete and file the MV-104 in a particular accident depends on the facts. Consult a New York attorney before signing or filing if injuries, fault, or coverage are in dispute.

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