I'd let it go to court. I'm not sure if I'd try to find a witness,
and just trust that judges who preside over small claims court (or
whatever type of proceedings it is) will know what questions to ask
when it's one person's word over the others. They have ways of
learning who is credible. I know that doesn't help you in the short
run. What type of insurance do you have with your insurance
company? Maybe you can get a rental car that they'll pay for while
it's being settled? I understand your panic! When I was hit I was
afraid that the mother of the kid that hit me was going to try to
fight it since it was their policy. But, she and her son did the
right thing. A good influence on her son. Ethical.

Good luck, purrs, and hope this settles soon.

I don't have experience, but I'm sending purrs anyway. I certainly
don't think there is any harm seeing if you can find someone who saw
it. It would be your  best opportunity I think.  I'm so sorry this is
happening.

If he knows there were no witnesses (or none that you can easily find) he's
probably doing this for the same reason you need witnesses.

Well, you still have the option of shooting yourself, but I wouldn't
recommend taking it, and would be very unhappy to learn that you did.

I wouldn't bother with the signs, I would just ask around.

I would expect that anyone who has been an arbitrator for any length of time
has probably learned to detect when someone is lying. So if it's only your
word against the doer's, I wouldn't be as pessimistic as you seem to be.

Stop fuming. It won't do you any good and will have negative effects on your
health and peace of mind.

Whoever seems more credible to them at arbitration.

I haven't been through exactly the same kind of thing but I can tell you
about a similar incident from my own life and how it turned out.

I was stopped in traffic on an expressway due to construction ahead. There
were cars ahead, behind, and on both sides. Everyone was stopped. The car
behind me was the last in the stopped line/lane that I was in. I was at the
wheel of a tiny compact car. The vehicle in front of me was a large pickup
truck, and in back was a full-size sedan.

Someone travelling in my lane apparently didn't notice that traffic ahead
was halted, and plowed into the car behind me, which forthwith plowed into
mine, which then plowed into the truck ahead. It was a forceful enough hit
from behind that even though I had the car in neutral and the hand brake
engaged, my car moved forward hard and fast enough to not only jar the truck
in front of me but also jar me so hard that I was hurt, almost badly enough
to be taken to a hospital in an ambulance. As it happens I was turned around
in the driver's seat and facing backwards, in the process of digging either
a book or a snack (I forget which) out of a bag on the back seat, when the
blow hit my car, and as I turned back around I felt major pain in my back
near the waist.

The car behind mine took most of the force so it wasn't as bad as it could
have been, but still.... Police arrived and took a report and offered to
call for medical help for me. I told them to wait a few minutes until I
calmed down and could gauge how bad I really felt, and I ended up turning
down the ambulance because I was in a rush to get home, almost there and
could seek medical attention there if I felt it was necessary (which I did).

The only damage to my car was a scrape on the front bumper from hitting the
truck. The truck was not damaged. My rear bumper was just slightly pushed
in. I did not file any claim for the car damage, but on my doctor's advice I
sought legal help to file one for the bodily injury, which ended up costing
me quite a bit (it was a large amount to me, anyway) to get fixed and out of
pain.

The outcome was I could not find a lawyer who wanted to take the case
because (1) none of the ones I consulted believed that any judge or jury
would believe that in an accident that did so little damage to the car they
were in at the time anyone could be hurt, especially if they refused an
offer of an ambulance ride, and (b) the amount of the claim was too small to
make it worth any lawyer's time.

I hope you have a better outcome.

Joyce, start knocking on doors AND put a ad in the paper asking for
witnesses to the accident...That's what they do here...Usually works too...
Good Luck!... :-) Liz

Did you at least get his name and license number?  I would call the police
and ask if you can report it this long after the fact.  The chances are good
that you can.  Then you can get the facts down in writing in a police
report.  You might look him up in the phone book, so you could provide his
address and phone number to the police.  However, DO NOT TRY TO CONTACT HIM!

If you have a lawyer, or know one, you might ask what you can do.  If you're
like most of us, and don't, you might try calling lawyers from the phone
book.  There are lawyers who will give a free phone consultation.  That
might tell you exactly what to do or not to do.  However, I am 100% positive
that contacting the perpetrator is not something you should do.

I wish you all the best.

Joy

I would think that you would have some physical injuries if you had
rear ended him hard enough to do that type of damage.  IF you had rear
ended him, there should be skid marks. A thought - will your local
newspaper print a letter from you asking if anyone saw the accident,
and if so, would they please contact you asap.  Our local paper does
print those.

Good luck!
Mishi

Joyce, the best advice I can offer is take pictures of the damage to
your car. Take lots of  them from a variety of different angles--front
sides, from above, from down low.  Also, before your memory of how it
all happened fades, write down your whole account of the accident as
accurately as possible and do it now. Every detail you can remember.
Write down what he said VERBATIM if you can.  SInce he hit YOU,  it may
be that an experienced insurance person could verify that by looking at
the damage inflicted to your car, how the dents look etc etc. If it
goes into arbitration, be confident and speak up for yourself.  You're
telling the truth, he's not. Body language and eye contact can make a
difference about who will be believed.

I'm sorry you're having to go through this,
Melissa

<snip>

I'm *very* sorry to read this, I wish I could say I'm surprised. Purrs that
someone comes forward as a whitness and the truck driver gets into trouble
for lying.

I hope you simply referred them to your own insurance
company?  Once you placed a claim with your company, his
insurance has no legal right to discuss it with you directly.

If there were no witnesses (if there were, he'd be an idiot
to lie about it) it's your word against his.  Presumably you
told your insurance company what happened when you called
and placed your claim - let them handle it.  There are ways
of determining who did what to whom, and insurance adjusters
are pretty well trained, these days.  He can say what he
likes, but unless there is clear evidence that's what really
happened, it shouldn't affect your driving record.  (IMO,
the fact his truck was not damaged would be pretty good
evidence.)

Calling the police doesn't do a hell of a lot of good in the
Los Angeles area, unless someone is injured.  I witnessed an
accident where some idiot female got impatient in a parking
lot, tried to back up and take another lane, slammed into
one parked car knocking it into another (causing extensive
damage to both), and because the idiot woman who was sitting
in the car when it was hit kept insisting she was not hurt
(instead of being "not sure"), the person on the police
switchboard just didn't want to know about it, and refused
to send a car!

That's your insurance company's job.  Let them handle it,
that's part of what you pay them for. They'd be the first to
advise you not to do anything on your own!

Which you presumably told your insurance company, when you
phoned them after the accident.

 Now it's his

Oh really?  Since when?

So who are they going to believe?

The physical evidence?

LET YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY HANDLE IT!!!!!!!!  You've already
put it their hands, give them credit for knowing their
business, and leave it there!

They can tell by looking at your car whether you were stopping when you
hit someone - when you stop the front of your car goes down and it
changes the kind of damage you would get on the vehicle.  And in order
for his vehicle not to be damaged, you  (if you  were at fault) would
have had to have been slowing down otherwise it wouldn't make sense, so
you do have evidence on your car and the claims adjuster and a police
officer needs to look at your car.

I would still call the police and explain why.  Tell them you know they
can't see the scene of the accident, but you want it on file and that
you want their investigators to examine your car for how the accident
occurred.  It is a crime to lie about this and try to get out of paying.
 So when the police go to talk to him about this and he gives his side
of the story, he will be lying to them and he will be confronted with
that in court or with the mediator.  And the more times he has to tell
his story, the more likely there are to be holes in it.  They'll ask him
all kinds of questions like what happened to his head when you hit him
and expect an answer right there on the spot.  He should know if it
happened the way he said.  They'll ask him if he hit the seatbelt (he
shouldn't have).  And all kinds of questions he won't know the answer to
because it didn't happen to him.  So, yeah, talk to the police.

Bridget

<snip>

I'm so very sorry you have to go through this.
We are sending lots of purrs and best wishes for things to work out for
you in the end,
Polonca and Soncek

I'm still not quite sure which insurance company called you but I wanted to
offer my experience here.  I was rear ended while at a complete stop at a
traffic light.  The other insurance company called me and said "IF their
insured was found at fault" etc.  I was floored since the guy admited it (he
had spilled his coffee, noticed the car rolling, and hit the gas instead of
the brake) and had been very nice about the whole thing.

Bottom line - the guy was still nice about the whole thing.  It was his
insurance company (Allstate) who were being a**es about the whole thing.  If
it is the other person's insurance company who called, they may be the ones
who are doing the lying.  

{{{Joyce}}}

I am so sorry that happened to you.

My advice would be to get an attorney.  That's what I did after my car
wreck, and I hate to say it, but I think we are past the days of
people being able to amicably work things out.  An attorney can help
you, take the stress off you, and probably help you win.  Yes, it
costs, but most of the attorney's fees get paid out of the win and not
your pocket.

I hope you're feeling better soon.

Ginger-lyn

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