[terrjade]

My neighbor who is 18 years old backed into our car. He denies it and his parents believe him. Our car was parked legally in front of our house. The dent was obviously made from a perpendicular collision. There is paint scraped from the vehicle that hit our car still on our car. The color of the paint matches his vehicle's rear quarter panels. The police came out and made a report, but didn't really follow up on the matter. Can I take this kid to court and sue him for damages? There were no witnesses. One neighbor verifies that the damage wasn't present the previous day and they noticed it the following morning.

[excon]

Hello terr:

Sure you can sue him, but can you prove your case? Without witnesses, it's going to be his word against yours. That's not enough in civil court. The rest of your evidence is circumstantial. It points to him, of course, but it isn't proof. You only need to tip the scales slightly in your favor, but, it still takes proof to do that. You don't have any.

In my view, you won't win, and you'll exacerbate the situation. I think you should end it by taking the high road. Of course, if I thought you could win, my advice would be otherwise.

I know, no good deed goes unpunished.

excon

[ScottGem]

I'm not as pessimistic as excon that you won't win. But you will need to do two things to win. You will need to hire an expert who can testify that the paint exactly matches his car and you will need to show corresponding damage on his car. If you can prove that, you will win. However, depending on the amount of damage it may cost you about as much to hire an expert as it would be to repair your car.

Have you talked to your insurance company? They should cover the repair cost less your deductible. You can present the police report to them and they will decide whether to pursue a claim against your neighbor.