Legal Question in Personal Injury in Maryland
I had just pulled up to my house on the side of the street, removed the keys from my ignition, and opened the door to my truck no more than 7 - 8 inches when another car's mirror got broken off from hitting my door. Had my door been shut, the car would have taken my mirror instead, i'm sure. ( My mirror moves with the door.)
There was PLENTY of room between the drivers side of my truck and the double - yellow lines in the road were.
The driver immediately started taking pictures of her broken mirror as opposed to seeing if I was not injured.
My opinion is that she was driving wrecklessly to have been so close to a parked vehicle; that I still had my foot on the brake - making it visable that I would be exiting the vehicle. She might have also been destracted, seeing that there was a 2 year old kid in the back seat, and chances were she was on her cell phone texting away; but I have no proof of this.
She contacted my insurance company - I contacted my insurance company. My insurance company says that I was at fault and they will be paying the damages. There was no damage to my vehicle..
Can I fight this? I do NOT want an at-fault accident on my record because someone almost completely sideswiped my vehicle. And lord knows how bad it could have turned out had I been standing outside of the vehicle and/or halfway getting out.
Please help.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You can tell your insurance company that you want to take direct responsibility and fight this, which means you'll have to be prepared to defend this in small claims court (unless she's also claiming injuries). You would argue that she was at least partially at fault for driving too close to your vehicle. This defense is known as contributory negligence. The insurance company is taking the position that you were at fault for not making sure no one was approaching you before you opened your door.
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