Car accident, need support and help?

Question

Recently I was involved in a car accident, it was clearly my fault, and the damage done to the other persons car was not much, so i ask him if he would rather just not call the police and not make a big deal, and let me pay for the damages. Well after this he calls me back the next day and tells me how much it will cost to get his car fixed. Now what do i do? and i want to know is this legal not to call insurance or the police or anything? and should i have some kinda of contract, and what should i include in this contract, please reply

Well, he said that the cost will be close to 750$, and that he wont call the police and stuff. So if he chooses to pursue this any further then am i in trouble? or is he in trouble also because he didnt call the cops neither.?

Also, i will be there to pay for his damages at the auto body shop

Answer 1

Just turn the matter over to your insurance company...it'll save you the headache of dealing with this person. There is no law saying you have to call your insurance or the cops; your state however may have a law stating you have to notify the DMV if you're involved in an accident and the property damage is over $750.

Answer 2

You never leave with out calling the police. This person may have been trying to help you out, but you may also end up paying more for damages than you would have to file on Insurance and pay your citation. Also, this person could go ahead and file a claim against you after the fact. Make sure you see the estimate of damage from the body shop so that you have proof of what he is being charged. Best of luck to you.

Answer 3

There is no law that prevents you from compensating the accident victim directly that I know of.

However, there MAY be laws in your state that requires you to report auto accidents that cause damage in excess of a certain amount. CA is one such state (current limit is $750, i.e .any accident causing over $750 in damage must be reported by a form to CA DMV). Both parties must submit his/her own form. And your insurance may find out about such accidents that way.

As for contract or not... That is certainly up to you. You can find a generic "release of claim" contract that you are paying so-and-so this amount in order for him/her to "release all claim, present or in the future, property or medical, in relation to the incident at and involving autos ". You can find templates like that on the Internet. You may need to revise the wording a bit.

Please note that you are coming awfully close to request legal advice, and not even lawyers can give legal advice over the Internet as that would establish a lawyer/client relationship. Nor am I a lawyer or work in law any way. :)

Answer 4

I don't know where all you all live, but here in Illinois it is not illegal to not call the police in an accident where the damage is estimated to be less than $1,000.

In fact, it's the person who got hit who will be in hot water. If they ever tried to sue you, they would have to prove that it was you who caused the damages and that the damages were not caused after the fact. The plaintiff has the burden of proof.

So what you do for now is ask to see the estimate, and get proof of payment that specifies it was a full payment, to whom and for what.

Answer 5

Your ins co can dump you if you do not notify them.

Now, just suppose he says, they damage was only minor,then the next day he says his neck hurt and the damages exceeded $ 5000.00. A policereportcouldsave your A#@,

You have no idea how much it will cost to get the car fixed until he takes it to the shop. You left yourself wide open to a lot of trouble.

Answer 6

Congratulations, you have committed a crime. It's called failure to report an accident and possibly fleeing the scene of a crime. Not getting a police report wasn't very intelligent and neither was not notifying your insurance carrier. Now you will have to pay for the damages out of pocket. In some states a verbal agreement is just as good as a written one.

Answer 7

In my last accident (I rear ended someone) I assumed full responsibility, and neither one of us called the police. We exchanged insurance information and an estimator from my insurance came out and gave me a check a few days later. The other insurance company paid off the claim for the person that I hit and they never gave me any grief.

I let the insurance companies handle the claim, but by leaving out the police I avoided getting points on my license.

When you admit fault then you are verbally agreeing that you take responsibility for the accident and you will be responsible for paying off the claim. But, a verbal contract is as good as the paper it is written on---not any good at all.

What happens now is up to you. If you think you can pay for the accident repairs yourself then you can do so without involving the Insurance Company. There is no law that requires you use your insurance, only that you HAVE that insurance. Your insurance company won't be too happy to hear that you had an accident, but unless you report the accident or the person you hit reports it they should not know about it. That is a risk that you are taking though, if the insurance company finds out about the accident they could hike your rates or cancel your contract, but NOT UNTIL it is time to renew your insurance (unless the insurance contract has terms that state otherwise).

If you want to pay for the damage yourself then you need to go to the repair shop with the person involved and you need to see what the estimate is. It is reasonable to ask her to get 1-3 estimates on the repair work, but they get to determine which shop will be considered. If she goes to the dealer the labor will usually be higher, but the parts will be cheaper. If you go to someone else then the labor will be a little cheaper, but the parts will cost more. If you take the car to a specialty dealership then you can expect to pay more for parts and labor. When in doubt the dealer may be the best option. You can't buy the parts yourself or try to substitute used parts because the auto repair shop will not warrantee any work done using those parts. In fact they must acquire the parts themselves to properly issue a warrantee on the job, however you can ask the accident victim if they will accept used parts. If they agree to it then you are in good shape but they don’t have to.

The problem here is depreciation. You have to pay to repair the car, which will be more than the actual value the insurance company could assign. If you want to negotiate this you will have to get the accident victim to agree to the new figure. If the car is an old one then it can be an important issue, but if the car is fairly new then you will just have to assume the cost to repair it enough to put it back into action. The IRS does allow something like 7% depreciation for every year on cars that are used in business so that would be a fair value, but getting the victim to agree to that will be very hard to do. I would only approach this subject if you are sure you can get them to agree. If you push it and they don’t agree then they won’t agree to sign the contract and they could want to turn it over to the insurance company. You are safe with the police though, since both cars have been moved after the accident the police cannot make any assessment of who was at fault and what damage was done.

Once you find the lowest estimate then you have to agree to pay for it and then the person turns in their car. They can also require you to pay for a rental car for their use while the car is in the repair shop. And of course you need to pay for your own car and handle things so that you can get to work either through public transportation or your own rental car.

I would want a written contract, but you don't have to have a lawyer draw one up. A contract has three key elements, the job to be done, the pay for that job, and the agreement between the parties on the terms of the contract.

I (your name) will pay for the repair of (the victim's name) car (include the car's VIN and license tag number). I accept responsibility for the accident on (the time and date) that happened at (the location), and I will only pay for the damages caused by that accident. I will require the (victim's name) to have an estimate made on the work with me present, at a shop of their choice. I will see the bill and only pay for it after I have had a chance to go over the bill and see the work that was done. I expect an estimate from at least 2 shops, but the (victim) will be able to determine where they want the work done. Once the work is finished, and I have inspected it then (the victim) may take the car home and I will handle arraignments with the auto shop for payment. Once the repair work is finished I will assume no more responsibility for the accident and it is the responsibility of (the victim) to utilize the repair shop's warrantee to make any further repairs, or they will assume the responsibility to make the repairs themselves. I will also assume that once (the victim) accepts the car and leaves the shop that it will be considered road worthy with no additional work required.

I (your name) swear suffered no physical damage to myself or my health as a result of this accident.
(The victim) releases (your name) from any liability or payments made for medical or health care for any injuries that were a result of this accident.

If you can wade through this then you will get an idea of why lawyers are so important. I am not a lawyer (I only watch one on TV), so there could be some issues that I forget or left out.

Basically you want to get the car repaired for a reasonable price and once the work is finished you will not want the victim to require you to make any further repairs. You also must free yourself from the liability of any health problems that arise out of that accident. You can tell the victim that you require this in return for paying to have the car made roadworthy again. An insurance company rarely promises to have the car restored, they only promise to make a payout based on the damage, the value of the car and the age of the car.

If you try to get the police involved then you will be found mostly at fault. Even is she stopped short in the middle of an intersection or was weaving across the road. The person who hits someone in the rear is always mostly at fault. You were either traveling too fast, not paying attention, or following too closely. This ruling will be made no matter what the actual circumstances of the accident are.

I think it is good for you to handle this outside of the system, but you have to get the other driver to agree. You can also mention that you won’t be able to sue them for any injuries either. Remember the issue of heath can be more important than the price to completely replace the car. If you are dealing with a fair person they will not try to take advantage of you, but so many people want something for nothing. If they argue on the no personal injury clause then you have to get the insurance companies involved. You don’t want to be paying this person thousands of dollars for medical care every month for the rest of their life!

You are in some very hot water and I hope you come out all right. I strongly recommend that you contact a lawyer and ask for some advice. Most lawyers will give out free basic legal advice of the phone.

Sites for Free legal advice in the US:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2006-49,GGLR:en&q=Free+Legal+advice
http://www.lawhelp.org/
http://www.freeadvice.com/all_topics.htm
http://www.lawinfo.com/
http://www.lsc.gov/about/grantee_links.php
http://www.thelaw.com/
http://www.flac.ie/
http://www.legalsurvival.com/