Legal Question in Traffic Law in District of Columbia

Accident w/ no damage

My wife rear ended a lawyer's car about 3 weeks ago going about 1 mph. They both got out of their cars and the lawyer claimed my wife caused damage that was obvioulsy already there and didn't at all line up with my wife's car. My wife disagreed but he refused to call the police and wouldn't stick around for her to do so. He collected my wife's driver's license info before he left.

My wife called the police soon after and they said since it was such a minor accident that they wouldn't come out. The driver wanted us to contact our insurance agency to pay for the damage. We didn't contact our insurance company because we figured that if he wanted to file the claim he would call his insurance agent who would contact us and our insurance agent (this never happened). He has now just left us a message saying that if he doesn't hear from our insurance company within 1 week he is taking us to court.

What should we do? I feel like he is just trying to get out of letting his insurance company know abou the accident and scare us into getting our insurance company to pay. I don't want our rates to go up. Can he bring us to court without a police report being filed?

Thanks so much-


Asked on 9/30/03, 4:11 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Accident w/ no damage

Yes, of course, this shyster can bring you to court, but that doesn't mean that he'll prevail once the matter gets there. And, naturally, he doesn't want to have any insurance companies(whether yours or his) investigating his fraudulent claim

I would bet that if you call his bluff, and tell him to sue, he'll fold.

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Answered on 9/30/03, 6:50 pm


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