So What do I do Now?

ontact police department with the day, time and location of accident. description of offers etc.

I'd call a lawyer. Right away.

No report means no claim. You'll just have to eat this one. Be glad its only $600 and there were no injuries.

My significnt other had a motorcycle accident recently. Modest cosmetic damage to the bike and he only had a sore ankle, or so he thought. No damage to the car that pulled out in front of him as he laid the bike over to keep from broad siding the car. But he did get an on scene police report and a witness statement.

I insisted he have his ankle looked at the ER right after he came home from the accident. Turns out it was broken. And the damage to the bike is over $2k. While we are in the midst of nasty wrangling with the other guy's insurance company (he was sited and plead guilty) at least we have an ankle to stand on.

I love when police officers give their opinions on how much damage is done to cars. Are they collision estimating experts?
The problem with modern day car bumpers is a minor impact to the plastic/rubber-like cover hides what may be damage to the support structure underneath. Unlike the old chrome bumpers, newer cars have bumpers designed to absorb the impact instead of the passengers.
Advice for everyone. Get a police report. Demand one. If they refuse, take pictures and get everyone's information in accident.
At this point, can you send a copy of the estimate to me? I can at least offer you my input to the repairs and see if there is anyway to repair it properly but at a lower price.

What kind of police don't write a report on an accident that was near their cruiser? Then say it's ok to "work it out" between yourselves? Is it their first day on the job? Did they even check to see if the driver had insurance?

As shamrock44 said, contact the police department to determine who was on duty in that police car and their failure to report the accident. If you have to, contact your district councilman, if you're in Toledo, because the police didn't do their job, even if your wife agreed to work it out. Good luck.

Agreed. If my wife was rear-ended and didn't get a name, a license plate number, or anything that they teach 16 year olds.... AND had contact with police officers who adjudicated the case on the street in the other party's favor... but didn't get names or a cruiser number from the car... I would need an attorney. Because a divorce will be cheaper in the long run.

Ouch!

That wasn't what I had in mind...but hey...it's one way to go...

Sorry to hear this, but I must admit I enjoyed the humorous abbreviated dialogue by ilovetoledo. Agreed with Holland, though, that this $600 damage might not be worth the effort to try and collect, given the circumstances.

It sounds like the other party and the police coerced your wife a bit into backing down. That is unfortunate, but it is a reality of interpersonal situations: most people just want to get along, and sometimes when people are outnumbered in opinion, they cave in.

Reminds me of a Family Guy bit:

Sorry man,
I'm with Holland on this one. Eat the $600, be thankful no one was injured and move in. It's a tough pill to swallow, but thankfully the mistake only cost a bit of money. It seems to me that the time spent chasing down the police officer who gave bogus advice and hiring a lawyer to deal with the douchebag offender would cost more than the $600.

A tough life lesson, but an important one for your wife on always making sure proper procedure is followed.

I got smashed into by an uninsured driver a few years back. Broke my axle and tore up my doors, but the car was still running. Got a police report, called my Insurance company (who said I couldn't make a claim. Since changed companies) and dotted all the 'i's. Cost $2.5K to fix and I got bombarded for two months with personal injury attorney ads in my daily mail because they ripped my address off the police report. (I was unharmed).

Never got a dime, and even if I would have hired a lawyer, at significant additional expense, the broke college kid who hit me was never going to be able to pay it off. Life's too short to litigate the little stuff, and it's all little stuff.

I believe you have 24 hours to file an accident report, though I have no idea how you can do so if you don't have the information of the other driver. However, with a name and telephone number, it should be possible to track down the guy who hit her (police may even help).

Shame on the police officer - regardless of damage, the guy hit here - he should have at least been given a ticket.

Never got a dime, and even if I would have hired a lawyer, at significant additional expense, the broke college kid who hit me was never going to be able to pay it off. - As RJ said, getting a judgement and getting a paycheck out of it is a world of difference.

Lick your wounds walk away and make sure wifey calls the cops next time shes involved in a fender bender.

I agree with those who advise to fuggetaboutit. Oh, I'd attempt to file the police report but I doubt you'll get far.

You could always turn it into your insurance carrier - BUT, you may end paying your deductible and then have an accident on your record that could haunt you when seeking insurance in the future.

Absorb this one and chalk it up to lesson learned.

No report does not necessarily mean no claim but, unless you can identify the OP and prove it was his fault (police report makes this far easier) your options are few.

If a police officer ever tells you that you do not have enough damage to take a report, ask him or her if it would have been enough damage to a POLICE car to necessitate the officer to report it.

Guy who hit her: That's too much! You got no report and as far as I am concerned I never was in an accident today!

So you must have contact info on the guy who hit her. I assume you have the date and time that this happened. Get hold of the police and see if they will track down the officer if for no other reason than to let the officer know the guilty party won't pay up. You can also get a statement from the officer as to what happened. Get the statement notarized if possible.

You can file in small claims court. If you get a judgement against this fellow you'll still have to collect, but you might well end up getting your $600 back.

I forgot to add that any of the TT users who council indifference to your loss, remember that it isn't their $600 that got burned. It's yours. Go and get it back.

I wonder how quickly the TPD officers would have dismissed the incident if you asked for their badge numbers or took a camera phone picture of the squad car #

Would the guy be agreeable to you getting another quote? Let him suggest the place.

Perhaps he's thinking the repair shop that you chose is making a rip off.

(This is assuming you haven't already tried that route.)

Coming to some sort of agreement is going to be less hassle for both of you than a lawsuit. Even if you agree to split the difference.

Even if the guy wins against you in court, he'd still have the time/expense/hassle involved in defending himself. From a logical perspective, you both might be better off working out a deal.

Thanks for the input and sympathy! Remember to always insist on a police report and get as much information about the other party as possible and pictures! As it turns out he did give us the correct phone number so I have that and now his address. I turned it over to our insurance company and they said I will eventually get my $500 deductible back. Unfortunately he already has some outstanding judgments and liens against him. Anyway, it is a new leased car so it has to be done right. Also, I got in touch with the officer, he stands by his decision for not citing the guy and not making a report...surprise surprise...

" Unfortunately he already has some outstanding judgments and liens against him. Anyway, it is a new leased car so it has to be done right. Also, I got in touch with the officer, he stands by his decision for not citing the guy and not making a report...surprise surprise..."

Neither of those surprise me one bit.

Several years ago I was rear ended by two females on Monroe Street. They fled. I chased them. After about 15 minutes of chasing them, blowing my horn and yelling for help (didn't have cell phone), I blocked them while they tried to u-turn on Berdan. First, they gave me fake info. After some effort, I finally got names, numbers, addresses (from envelopes in car), all vehicle info, etc. Called next day with $400 estimate for rear bumper. She told me I was crazy. I went to the police station on Sylvania (now closed). They took all my info and did nothing. Told me that following them was pointless because all I could do was file a report.
So I know the person who did it. Have her name, address, license info. Car was not registered, no insurance, but nothing was ever done.
Good luck with getting your money back. You'll get no help from police at all.

Around 2 months ago my husband was downtown and made a left hand turn and went all the way over to the far right hand (curb) side. The p/u truck behind him also turned left, but into the lane to the left of my husband. They did not clear the turn and their right side bumper smashed into the left side of our car (they were attempting to pass as well). The impact smashed out our vans' sliding door window. When my husband got out of the van, there were 3 adults from the truck standing next to it. One said, "man, i don't need to go back to prison", the other said to the lone female "at least YOU have insurance". No one would own up to who was driving. They handed my husband a piece of paper that included an ins. policy number and owner's name and address. They refused to wait for the police. Ironically a cruiser drove by at this time and my husband waved him down, but the officer raised up his hands like there was nothing he could do, and kept going. My husband got their license number and was walking to the corner (it was near 5/3rd Field, and there was a game going on), to see if he could find another cop, when he heard the p/u truck start up and take off. Another cruiser passed by, and did not stop either. He walked to the stadium and get a Dep. Sheriff to come back to the site and then got a police officer over to make the report. They tried contacting the owner with the phone number he was given, but got no answer. Upon arriving home, we contacted our ins. company (it was a Sat. night, the agent was not open) and made our report with them. The next night (Sunday), we received a call on our answering machine saying that "this is so and so, the people that YOU hit. If we don't get this incident taken care of, we're going to take you to court. We had to take our kids to the hospital (there were no kids even in the car!) Please call us back...." We contacted our agent in the morning, who felt it was going to be tough collecting on this one. After several weeks of Geico not returning our agents' calls, they finally got thru to the vehicle owner, who eventually turned it over to Geico. However, the supposed driver was not covered under his policy. Our ins. continued to fight it, and has even since reimbursed me my $500 deductible, but the other day I received a letter from Geico in the mail saying that they believe their client's story, and that WE were at fault, and they are declining to pay. Wondering if I'll have to pay back my deductible, but what a bunch of BS besides!

I doubt you will have to pay back your deductible - however, you were lucky to get it in the first place. Generally, in cases like this, insurance companies do not refund your deductible until they have successfully subrogated against the OP's carrier.

As for Geico basically telling you to stuff it, not much you can do about that one. If their client insists that you were at fault and there is no police report to the contrary, they are not obligated to pay.

Very frustrating situation.

As for Toledo's finest not responding: they announced quite some time ago that they would not respond to non injury accidents. That being said, one would think they would have at least stopped to see if there were any injuries.

Well, I want to thank the City of Toledo for responding to the liar who attempted to bamboozle my trusting wife. The police issued a complete report including all pertinent information and also issued him a citation for following too closely right to his door! Thank you public servants of the City of Toledo for helping citizens who support law, order, integrity, and decency!

I'm curious - what more (if anything) was required on your part to get this accomplished?

Glad to hear the good news and that Toledo's finest stepped up to the plate and did what they should have done in the first place.

Mostly documentation. My wife had nothing except the guys phone number. It would have been better if he had given her his insurance info as he promised the officer he would do, but he decided to be a stinker so now my insurance company will have to it all the hard way. But it is better now that we have real documentation of who hit her rather than just a report by my wife that someone named blah blah allegedly hit her.

Do you have his address? Do you have a ball bat?

Well, I really feel bad how this turned out and had I known I would not have pursued it. But the guy who hit my wife is irrational. Not only would he not pay us, he ignored the summons to court so now there is a bench warrant out for him. In fact, while we were waiting for the case my wife and I were shocked at how many people ignored their summons. Are people really that irresponsible?

I'll vouch for hockeyfan, he's good with cars and really helped me in a bind some years back.

ILT, sad to say that a lot of people really ARE that irresponsible. And stupid.

So, I think if car insurance is required by law, I buy it; if I get in an accident I am responsible for paying for it; if I get a ticket, I pay it; if I get a summons I got to court....so many people in this nation apparently think otherwise..... sad....