Legal Question in Personal Injury in Louisiana

Here's a crazy automobile traffic accident scenario and question - I hope someone can help (Please):

My mother, who lives in Baton Rouge, LA, got into a car accident yesterday. She was in the left-most lane, and someone from her right merged into her lane and hit her.

They both pulled off to the side of the road.

The woman (*we'll just say her name is Jane) who hit my mother's car (my mother says she looked like a college student) got out of the car and told my mother that she was sorry and that she didn't see her. My mother asked her for her license and insurance information. Jane replied with a "I don't know my insurance company. I have to call my step-daddy." My mother, reminded of me as a college student, completely understood that Jane may have not known her insurance information and let Jane call her "step-daddy" for the information.

Soon after, a friend of Jane arrives at the scene. Then, after that, three motorcycle policemen show up at the scene. At this point, my mother was on the phone with her insurance company and very confused that all these people suddenly showed up. The police talk with Jane and her friend, get their side of the story, and dismiss them. At this point, Jane + friend have left.

The police approach my mother and ask her to write a description of the accident and to sign the description form. My mother (a South Korean immigrant) cannot speak English very well, so she asked if she could draw the incident instead. The police apparently replied with a stern "no" and demanded her to write out the description. My mother then asked if she could call a friend who could translate and write the description for her. They gave her some spiel about involving other people, said "no," and again demanded that she quickly write the statement. She did not want to sign the form, yet the police were demanding that she do. So, somehow in between all that, my mother called her friend to come out and the friend said he'd be there soon. So, my mother, trying to stall, began writing very slowly on the description sheet that the police had given her. As she was writing, the policeman approached her with a ticket that fined her for "failing to yield in lane" and told her to sign it. My mother refused to sign the ticket because she did not understand why she would have to sign a ticket saying that it was her fault when it was plainly not. Soon, my mother received a call from her friend saying he'd be there in one minute. My mother told the officer that her friend would be there in one minute, and as soon as the police heard that another friend was coming, the two other policeman that were there fled the scene. The one that was giving my mother a ticket opened my mother's car door and threw the ticket in and left.

My mother's friend arrived too late and did not see anything in time except my mother sobbing because of the shock of what had just happened.

My mother did not see the names of the other two policemen.

All actions that have been taken up to this point are: called insurance company, called lawyer.

--------

What are the chances of winning this case in court? What would be some arguments to point out?

I do not know much about court law, but with what little I do know, I feel as though we have little chance at all.

I see Jane + friend (fake eye-witness) + policeman against my mother.

Please help.

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Personal Injury Law and Tort Law questions and answers in Louisiana

Looking for something else?