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chummyjoll · Feb 17, 2006, 12:01 PM

Hello from Minnesota
I hit another car that was stopped on an on ramp at about 20 miles an hour.
I left the scene of the accident and drove home. (Yes I know this was not the right thing to do). The police came to my door and saw me but I did not answer the door. A month went by with no notice, but yesterday I received a letter from State Farm stating I was responsible for the damages to there insurer and they were preparing the bill for me to pay. There was a police report with the letter stating that the other party saw my license plate, but did not see who was driving. In the accident report the police stated they saw a 6foot man with brown hair(me) through the front window who did not respond when they showed up to my residence, they also noted they saw a 4 door blue sedan with damage to the front end through the window of my garage which matched the other party's description of the car and the damage corresponded to the damage to the other partys vehicle left rear. (I actually have a 2 door blue compact).

Questions -

1. If I don't pay the claim to State Farm will they sue me?
2. If I do pay can the police charge me with the crime? (Since they have not yet).
3. What kind of charges can the police charge me with?
4. Why haven't the police charged me yet? They seem to have plenty of evidence (I guess they don't know who was driving the car, so they don't know who to charge with leaving the scene).

Thanks much for your response.

CaptainForest · Feb 17, 2006, 01:52 PM

1) Yes, they can sue you

2) There is no direct correlation between these 2. If the police haven't charged you yet, they probably won't. Not paying (civil matter) will have no bearing on whether they charge you or not.

3) Leaving the scene of an accident, and I'm sure there are more.

4) Because they are lazy. Or they just don't want to bother since no one was hurt. Because then there would be court, trial and a whole waste of time.

I want to point out thought that they can still charge you for the crime.

RickJ · Feb 17, 2006, 02:15 PM

I think the simple solution would be to report it to your insurance company. After all, that's what they're there for: to pay for things that are your fault.

Do I oversimplify?

You do have insurance, right?

chummyjoll · Feb 17, 2006, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by rickj

I think the simple solution would be to report it to your insurance company. After all, that's what they're there for: to pay for things that are your fault.

Do I oversimplify?

You do have insurance, right?

Yes I do have insurance - however I traded my car in the very next day (although I am still insured). Honestly I want to pay for the damage, I just would like to avoid the charges of leaving an accident. I don't want to make a claim due to my insurance is already very expensive.

Thanks for such a quick reply -
Mn

chummyjoll · Feb 17, 2006, 02:29 PM

Thank you very much -

RickJ · Feb 17, 2006, 02:31 PM

Separate the actual fault from the potential consequence. Report it to your insurance company and hope the cops don't press charges.

... just my 1.5 cents worth:o

Fr_Chuck · Feb 17, 2006, 08:06 PM

1. If I don’t pay the claim to State Farm will they sue me?

Yes and State Farm will, why not merely turn it into your car insurance and let your insurance company pay for the damage. But if you or your car insurance people don't pay State Farm will sue, they have a entire list of attorneys that just work for them with nothing better to do.

2. If I do pay can the police charge me with the crime? (Since they have not yet).

Police can change you anytime they up if you pay or not ( a lot more likely to change you if you don't pay) They can wait for several months to charge you even waiting till a civil case is over

3. What kind of charges can the police charge me with? If the car was in the lane of traffic and stopped you would be charged with
a. following to closely most likely ( anytime you hit someone frm the rear that is the charge

b. failure to stop at an accident
c. failure to report an accident
d. I don't here the words you have insurance, if you don't have insurance they will charge you with that and require you to supply a Certificate of Responsibility Insurance Form from your new insurance company before you can drive again ( it is costly)
e. and since you did not answer the door, they could try (it may be a streach but if the judge does not like people who fail to stop they could walk almost any change past him) but perhaps alluding arrest, by not coming to the door

4. Why haven’t the police charged me yet? The are most likley waiting for the civil case, since you will be sued, if you were not driving your only defense is to tell them who was driving, so once the civil case is over they will most likely charge you. They don't have any rush in charging.
Or perhaps once they could not find who was driving, but found the car they may have made charges against the owner of the vechile, but you just have not gotten the paper work,

If you get charged in criminal court you can expect to lose your licence for a while most likley

chummyjoll · Feb 17, 2006, 10:04 PM

Thank you very much for your advice...

The police already know who owns the vehicle. Its on the police report - my name and address. Its been over a month now and no word from the police.

I have done a bit of research and asked advice of an attorney on this matter.

His advice - talk to no one. If they subpenoa then pay the money for a lawyer. Otherwise pay the bill from the insurance company. He also mentioned that the police would have most likely tried to contact me if they had a clear case. The problem is who to charge the crime to and if the police even have the time to spend on the thousands of these type of traffic incidents. I guess only time will tell.

Thanks so much for your response