NRR: legal advice after I hit someone's car while running

Court Tuesday involved the following:

-Agreement that a second estimate of damages should be acquired to verify $912.08.

-Agreement that the felony charge would be dropped upon payment of agreed upon cost (after second estimate is obtained)

-Adjournment until 5/2 to give time to get second estimate

Based on the plaintiff's description the dent/damage I did is on a part of the car that cannot be "suctioned" and therefore involves a lot more work than a typical dent. I don't have a copy of the estimate (my lawyer does I just never asked for a copy) but I did glance at it $800 of the $912 is labor for disassembling parts of the car and then reassembling after the dent is removed.

Wow. What if you didn't have the means to pay $912? Then you'd have a felony. Strange justice system...requiring payment to avoid a more severe conviction. This is like what the Catholic Church does ("pay us and you're forgiven").

la;sdjfasldfjasdl;fjl wrote:

Wow. What if you didn't have the means to pay $912? Then you'd have a felony. Strange justice system...requiring payment to avoid a more severe conviction. This is like what the Catholic Church does ("pay us and you're forgiven").

"did". This is like what the Catholic Church "did". The Council of Trent is generally agreed to have ended the practice of "selling" indulgences.

Had court yesterday 5/2/12. There was no second estimate. I paid the $912.08 in restitution and the charges are completely purged.

And to the lady who almost ran me over, since I need to vent: Fvck you you b1tch, if I ever get the chance to see you again I am going to put the hurt on you.

did wrote:

Had court yesterday 5/2/12. There was no second estimate. I paid the $912.08 in restitution and the charges are completely purged.

And to the lady who almost ran me over, since I need to vent: Fvck you you b1tch, if I ever get the chance to see you again I am going to put the hurt on you.

Why would you go and threaten her on a public forum? Sounds like she is super litigious; she'll probably find this and get a restraining order against you. Have Wejo remove this post or post again saying that you are kidding.

vig wrote:

Court Tuesday involved the following:

-Agreement that a second estimate of damages should be acquired to verify $912.08.

-Agreement that the felony charge would be dropped upon payment of agreed upon cost (after second estimate is obtained)

-Adjournment until 5/2 to give time to get second estimate

Based on the plaintiff's description the dent/damage I did is on a part of the car that cannot be "suctioned" and therefore involves a lot more work than a typical dent. I don't have a copy of the estimate (my lawyer does I just never asked for a copy) but I did glance at it $800 of the $912 is labor for disassembling parts of the car and then reassembling after the dent is removed.

Ha Ha!

did wrote:

Had court yesterday 5/2/12. There was no second estimate. I paid the $912.08 in restitution and the charges are completely purged.

And to the lady who almost ran me over, since I need to vent: Fvck you you b1tch, if I ever get the chance to see you again I am going to put the hurt on you.

The orignal poster was Vig.

Either he is caught trolling here, and very well for having followed up with his story.

Or someone else is pretending to be Vig.

la;sdjfasldfjasdl;fjl wrote: Wow. What if you didn't have the means to pay $912? Then you'd have a felony. Strange justice system...requiring payment to avoid a more severe conviction. This is like what the Catholic Church does ("pay us and you're forgiven").

err wrote: "did". This is like what the Catholic Church "did". The Council of Trent is generally agreed to have ended the practice of "selling" indulgences.

I'm Catholic. A few years ago, I wanted to marry in the Catholic Church, and they told me that since I had already been married once before, in a Presbyterian Church, that I was now "against the church" and I'd have to pay a few hundred dollars to meet with a bishop (or was it cardinal?) to remedy the situation. I don't know what the Council of Trent was; but I can observe what the Catholic Church is doing today.

la;sdjfasldfjasdl;fjl wrote:

I'm Catholic. A few years ago, I wanted to marry in the Catholic Church, and they told me that since I had already been married once before, in a Presbyterian Church, that I was now "against the church" and I'd have to pay a few hundred dollars to meet with a bishop (or was it cardinal?) to remedy the situation. I don't know what the Council of Trent was; but I can observe what the Catholic Church is doing today.

I obviously don't know anything about your specifics, but I can speculate that being "against the church" is different than having the church provide a blanket forgiveness of sins in return for giving them money. Looking at your original post, I now see that I assumed by "pay us and you're forgiven" you were talking about indulgences. I apologize for that assumption, my good man.

Wow, I can't believe this is happening to you.

The same thing happened to me a few years ago. This was a lady in a minivan that came out from a parking lot and almost hit our baby jogger (with an 8-month old in there). My wife hit the van and I kicked it, both feeling pretty self-righteous at the time.

She drove off but we got her license plate.

We called the police, who ended up charging her with some tiny misdemeanor, "inattentive driving" I believe.

Now the kicker. Once she was fined, she gpt our names from the report and googled us. Now, she knew where we worked and wrote all kinds of nasty letters to our place of work and state licensing board. I mean, really wacky stuff like we were obviously on steroids and such. She included estimates for the damage to her car. We simply replied that her crime had nearly resulted in serious injury; our reaction had been emotional, but not unexpected given the circumstances. I don't think anyone could argue with that.

So make sure the police charges the driver for failing to yield. Sometimes an attack is the best defense.

Btw, like so many of us, I hit cars too often, and it's a habit I am trying to quit.

I agree with Car Hitter too. I think your lawyer needs to act more aggressively and make your case. She was in wrong in the beginning, and you end up paying $912. There's something a bit odd with all this...

Oh, and I should add that this happened right outside the place where we worked (a small college). That exit from the parking lot now has a stop sign. I imagine our little incident may have helped put it there and whenever I am back to visit, I look at that stop sign and think of that day

Looking back, I wish we had just gotten the license number and called the police, but then the stop sign may not have been put in.

Pizzaguy wrote:

The orignal poster was Vig.

Either he is caught trolling here, and very well for having followed up with his story.

Or someone else is pretending to be Vig.

The guy's regular handle is did but he used vig for most of this thread. In a post from 3/14/2012 2:06PM earlier in the thread he admitted that he is both did and vig.

vig wrote:

My previous post was under another handle "did" which I use.

Figuring he was trying to isolate did (who posts semi regularly on more sedate threads) from vig who is apparently an unlucky idiot who got busted doing what any one of us might do and then had an unambitious lawyer.

I'd like to hear more information on what your lawyer did and what you have to pay him/her now.

I have an old college buddy who is a lawyer, and if enlisted I would not be paying anybody anything, just the opposite in fact. Same thing for the cop too as your car hitting resulted from her illegal driving.

I understand your job concerns and you have gone ahead and swallowed your pride a bit, much to your credit to move past all this, but man...

I have posted in this thread as both vig and did, they're both me.

I was not serious about putting the hurt on that lady or doing anything to her.

--------------------------------------------------------

The lawyer was an acquaintance, I paid $500. We were talking initially and the question came up: How far do I want to take this? Do I want to try and prove the point that pedestrians have more rights than drivers, that I was justified in physically defending myself from her car, do I honestly think I’m going to make a difference, do I honestly think a judge is going to care about a person who “goes around punching people’s cars”? Well shit, I know I didn't have a RIGHT to damage her car, but many/most of us agree that what I did wasn't 100% wrong and I wasn't the only wrong-doer. The question became how far did I want to push it to try and get the driver to have to pay for her actions? Did I want to continue to take time off from work, risk being convicted of the oringal charge or something else, and also increase the amount of time I spend with an open felony charge? The answer was obviously no - but I struggled with it for a while and struggled a lot. I can definitely be the type of person who is willing to take risks to prove a point, especially on a matter like this. She should have to pay somehow for driving dangerously and putting me at risk – I am quite certain of that – but I’m trying to convince myself that there was little to no chance of success in this particular case. Two other trivial things which, when blown out of proportion in my anxious mind, also weighed in on my decision making some: (1) After being arrested several days after the incident I was told by the police officer that there was an 80 year old woman passenger in the backseat of the car sitting in the seat right where I punched the car. Does that hurt my case? Probably no - but it certainly doesn’t help that she is a witness and it could be construed that I’m the kind of person who physically assaults old ladies. (2) The driver was a black woman and I’m white. If it came to some kind of a case or deliberation there is nothing stopping the driver from adding in the race card. It would have been completely fabricated but unfortunately that’s irrelevant in some instances.

So after discussing with the lawyer I chose to get past the prove-a-point mentality and swallow my pride. He didn't do a lot to sway me either way and left it up to me. Man it sucked d*ck, but it’s the choice I made and it’s done now. An expensive lesson, experience, ordeal...

Like you, I would lose my job if I was convicted of a felony. I probably would have also paid the money to just make it go away. In hind site, it seems to me that you should have been more forceful with the police officer after the accident, and insisted that you were almost hit and the driver was at fault. Immediately invoking the "You hit me with your car and now you want me to pay for the dent?" defense might have saved you some time / money.

Thanks for posting. This will make me think twice before hitting a car. Although, I will still give them the finger and yell "you are going to F@*#ing kill someone"!

Seems like you could have threatened her with a charge for her driving error. Have your lawyer friend write out scary letter with what charges you will bring against her. Then have the lawyer talk to her and have everyone agree to drop the charges.

Good thread. Sorry this shit happened to you. Property is def valued over life in the legal system.

vig wrote:

The driver was a black woman and I’m white.

We should have picked our own damn cotton.