civil-law
Can one use a personal injury lawyer when the police won&#39;t act?
<p>Based on a true story:  Bob's car is parked in the street.  Ted is driving down the street recklessly with Alan as a passenger.  Ted sideswipes Bob's car doing quite a lot of damage, but takes off.</p>
<p>Next day, Alan shows up at Bob's doorstep saying, &quot;You wanna get the guy who sideswiped your car last night?  I was the passenger in that car and I was scared witless and I banged my head hard when he hit your car.&quot;   Bob says, &quot;Heck yes&quot; and Alan takes him to Ted's house where Ted's vehicle is parked.  Bob gets pictures of Ted's vehicle showing the damage and paint scrapings from Bob's car.  He's got this evidence plus Alan as a witness.</p>
<p>Bob calls the Austin Police Department and after a couple minutes the cop says, &quot;You know, we're not going to do anything about this.&quot;  &quot;Why not?&quot; &quot;Because we're losing 40 cops per month, and we can't hire more.  We have only 3 cops for all of downtown Austin just not.  Our response time for an active shooter is 18 minutes.  We don't have the manpower for this.&quot;</p>
<p>Bob is lamenting about this to one of his friends.  The friend says, &quot;Why don't you engage The Hammer?&quot; (The Hammer is a personal injury lawyer who has billboards all over Austin and commercials that run every 2 minutes on daytime TV.)  He goes on:  &quot;Give the The Hammer all your evidence and let him treat it as a civil case.  He can get to the court system, sue the pants off of Ted and you don't have to go through the police.&quot;</p>
<p>So my question is:  Is Bob's friend on to something?  If cops won't act in a criminal case, is possible and sensible to hire The Hammer to get restitution?</p>
<p>Additional information: Bob's car was a project car, and wasn't registered, licensed, or insured at the time.</p>

<p>Bob can certainly &quot;engage&quot; a personal injury lawyer, but it is highly unlikely that they would take the case...</p>
<p>Let's take a look at the facts...</p>
<p>In Texas, you are required to register every vehicle unless it is damaged beyond repair or destroyed (it's intended to be scrapped). <strong>Bob did not do this</strong></p>
<p>In Texas, every registered vehicle must be insured, at a minimum, for liability insurance. <strong>Bob did not do this</strong></p>
<p>But, because of the insurance requirement you can get the information from TxDOT about the other vehicle's registration and insurance. It's more likely than not that the other vehicle is also uninsured, but if it is, Bob should contact Ted's insurance company.</p>
<p>Because Bob did not register or insure the car that was parked on the street, Bob assumed liability that the insurance company would typically cover. If Bob had properly insured the vehicle, including uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (which must be declined <em>in writing</em> in Texas), Bob would be whole (minus the deductible). Bob's total liability <em>should be</em> the deductible on the vehicle.</p>
<p>Another not-small contributing factor is that this is a self-proclaimed &quot;project vehicle&quot;, meaning it has low current value despite a possible high future value. Without insurance, the entire liability would amount to the actual <em>current</em> value of the vehicle, the amount it would take to buy another in exactly the same condition.</p>
<p>Now back to the PI lawyer, they make money by suing insurance companies for personal injury (damage to your car is not a &quot;personal injury&quot;) because they have the ability to pay. Private individuals, especially those without insurance, typically do not have the ability to pay. The PI can typically recover all the attorneys fees + up to half the judgement. So even if the PI agreed to take the case, and they won some amount (let's say $50,000 which includes attorneys fees and judgement), Ted would probably not be able to pay for this. The PI goes back to the client for the fees and now Bob is in even worse condition, since a majority of the $50,000 judgement would be attorneys fees.</p>
<p>Really the best remedy Bob has in this case is to sue Ted in small claims for the value of the vehicle up to the maximum of the court (in Texas, this is a generous $20,000). Small claims courts have a lower burden of proof and Bob can use Alan as a witness.</p>

<p>Yes. This happens every day, possibly hundreds of times around the United States.</p>

<p>You don't ask about this, but there is a third option in some jurisdictions: to bring a private criminal prosecution against Ted.  In my home jurisdiction of England and Wales, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prosecution#England_and_Wales" rel="nofollow noreferrer">private prosecutions are allowed</a>, though not common.  The Crown Prosecution Service may at its discretion take over a private prosecution at any stage, either to continue it to its conclusion, or to discontinue it; but anyone can start one.</p>
<p>In England and Wales if you are involved in a collision which causes damage to property you must stop and give your details to anyone reasonably requiring them, and if nobody does, you must report it to the police &quot;as soon as is reasonably practicable&quot;, and in any case within 24 hours (s170, Road Traffic Act 1988).  Ted's failure to do so constitutes an offence, so a private prosecution could be brought if the police wouldn't investigate, or the CPS declined to proceed.</p>
<p>I note you don't specify the jurisdiction you're asking about, though I infer it's Texas, USA; but I thought it worth noting the option exists in some places, and may exist for Bob.</p>
