A few years after I came to the states, my wife's car was hit in El Cajon,
CA, by a motorcyclist
who was "splitting lane" (legal in CA), attempting to pass her on the right
(he was going straight) as she was turning right into a store driveway. She
had her turn signals on. He hit the car on the right rear quarter panel.
The motorcyclist said he would pay for the damages, and did not want my wife
to call the police or contact the insurance - but my wife wante to play it
safe, contact the insurance and also the DMV, in case the damage was
going to be over $500 - any accident costing over that sum has to be
reported. My wife also wanted a police report as the motorcyclist took a
good
tumble... My wife called the police, and a El Cajon policeman quickly got
to the scene.
As the motorcyclist said he was unhurt, the policeman refused to write a
report. The motorcyclist
had a license but admitted he had no insurance, right in front of the
policeman. I don't know if the policeman could have, but he did not
cite the motorcyclist. He did not check the tags on the motorcycle either.
The policeman told my wife and the motorcyclist to exchange cards with
details, and that was it!
To cut a long story short, instead of paying for the damages, the
uninsured motorcyclist used a lawyer to threaten us - the gist of it is
that they wanted $2,800 up front for the 10 years old Honda motorcycle which
he said
was a write off (by the way, he merrily rode it from the scene of the
accident), and the lawyer was saying that due to the extensive nature of his
client's injuries and my wife's negligent driving, as well as her failure to
secure a
police report, a considerable sum of money would be seeked in damages. Our
insurance (State Farm) first said they would rather pay off the motorcyclist
than fight the case! In the end, we managed to get an insurance lawyer write
to
the other party saying my wife did nothing wrong, and we would see them in
court if necessary. The lawyer and his motorcyclist client dropped the
case. Our own insurance repaired the damage to my wife's
car, as we had uninsured driver coverage.
That taught me even the guilty can sue you in CA (and possibly win?), and I
have been buying the best insurance coverage I can afford ever since.
JLC
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