unluckydriver
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA
I was driving my girlfriends 3 weeks old vehicle and we were coming out of a grocery store. I backed out of my parking spot and was waiting for pedestrians to move out of my way to go forward. This 19 years old girl, parked on the other side of the same row of parked cars, backed out without looking and hit the rear bumper of our vehicle. It turns out she was driving her older brother's care and the car was uninsured. I called the police. They came and he took statement from both sides. He said I can file a report and she has to go to court and pay almost 1600 dollars of fine and then the damage and with a minimum wage McDonalds burger flipper job, it is very likely not to happen. So, the office informally told us if we she is willing to pay the ~$700-800 bill for the paint job, we should be all good to go. Or we could go with our insurance (she had uninsured motorist coverage) to get the paint damage fixed, but it required filing a report.
3 weeks forward, after few unsuccessful attempts to have her pay the $775 (multiple body shop estimates, plus car rental quotes for 4 days), we got nowhere. We went ahead and filed the report at the local police station. She sent it to the insurance company and got the car fixed. But during this ordeal, we have incurred ~$350 expense, for deductible and uncovered expenses.
Can I or my girlfriend sue this little twit to get her pay the money out of our pockets, via small claims court ? if yes, what is the proper procedure for this ? If no, what do you suggest ?
Thank you.
I was driving my girlfriends 3 weeks old vehicle and we were coming out of a grocery store. I backed out of my parking spot and was waiting for pedestrians to move out of my way to go forward. This 19 years old girl, parked on the other side of the same row of parked cars, backed out without looking and hit the rear bumper of our vehicle. It turns out she was driving her older brother's care and the car was uninsured. I called the police. They came and he took statement from both sides. He said I can file a report and she has to go to court and pay almost 1600 dollars of fine and then the damage and with a minimum wage McDonalds burger flipper job, it is very likely not to happen. So, the office informally told us if we she is willing to pay the ~$700-800 bill for the paint job, we should be all good to go. Or we could go with our insurance (she had uninsured motorist coverage) to get the paint damage fixed, but it required filing a report.
3 weeks forward, after few unsuccessful attempts to have her pay the $775 (multiple body shop estimates, plus car rental quotes for 4 days), we got nowhere. We went ahead and filed the report at the local police station. She sent it to the insurance company and got the car fixed. But during this ordeal, we have incurred ~$350 expense, for deductible and uncovered expenses.
Can I or my girlfriend sue this little twit to get her pay the money out of our pockets, via small claims court ? if yes, what is the proper procedure for this ? If no, what do you suggest ?
Thank you.
