so, i went to st paul today to get the police report agian, and this time, it was in! i was so excited that it was actually in! in the report it explains exactly what i was hoping. it explained that he turned in front of me, from around another car, and struck me. the witnesses names are on it as well (no phone numbers) but it states that the witnesses said that they did NOT have a green arrow, and that he is at fault. it was a big relief. i may send 1 more letter, with a copy saying look, you dont stand a chance, lets make a deal. anyways, i'll be calling the courthouse tommorrow and finding out my options there as well. i'll try and get the police report scanned in somtime tonight and post it, along with the very last photo i took of the car before the accident. it was from the weekend before.

Joel

(edit) i never thought this would be a 3 page thread!

[This message has been edited by justa6 (edited 10-18-2004).]

Hey Joel, call me anytime..............I went through the EXACT same accident ( in my maroon 87 GT ) with the legal problems & all except I didn't walk away . I had it rebuilt in 1 summer and only spent $4500 on it. I have a parts car that is clean & can be cut for structural parts in front. I also know a body guy who ( painted Purple Reign ) might be able to help.

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[This message has been edited by PURPLE REIGN (edited 10-19-2004).]

Winning your case won't be the problem, collecting your money will be. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take the kid to court, but you may want to find out what recourses are available to you in the event he doesn’t pay. If he’s already ignoring your correspondences, chances are he’ll also refuse to pay. Folks are rarely if ever sent to jail for non-payment of financial obligations. It may affect his credit history, but you’ll probably have to be the one to report it to credit companies. Last I heard, bad credit could stay on your credit history for up to seven years, after that it has to be removed. I hope I’m wrong, good luck.

Shitty situation. As someone pointed out you might want to get uninsured motorist protection now. I know I will after reading this thread.

quote Originally posted by ChopTop: Folks are rarely if ever sent to jail for non-payment of financial obligations.

In the State of Minnesota, non-payment of a fine or restitution can net you time in jail. Not a pre-determined amount, but however long it takes to pay it off at 30 cents an hour, 8 hours a day of work. For example, I have court fines totalling approximately 3000 dollars. If I do not pay those, or am late in paying them, I can go to jail for a VERY long time because of it.

PLUS they now charge each inmate 20 dollars per day for being in jail, and that gets added onto the fines. Makes sense doesn't it?

i did have uninsured motorist coverage. the thing about that is that it only covers personal injury, not the vehicle. i looked into it, trust me

Joel

Take them to court. The parent is responsible as both parent and as owner of the car in question. If they fail to show then you get an automatic judgement in your favor. That judgement allows you to file liens on their car and property, such as homes, contents, etc. Show up with a tow truck to get the car, you can part it out to recoup some of your costs. If they are homeowners they can't sell the house until your lien is paid off, ever. Find out who their mortgage holder is and notify them that you have a lien on the property, likely the mortgage holder will call the mortgage if the homeowners don't clear things with you.

This is what the court system is set up to do, use it to your fullest advantage. I think you can also charge interest on the judgement as well, might want to look into that.

JazzMan

im not sure in all states, but i believe that if the defendant doesnt show up for court that there is a warrent issued for their arrest, not positive on that, but it might be right.

matthew

quote Originally posted by m0sh_man: im not sure in all states, but i believe that if the defendant doesnt show up for court that there is a warrent issued for their arrest, not positive on that, but it might be right. matthew

I believe that they reserve that for criminal trials... not so much for civil trials.

So, Ive been doing a bunch of research this afternoon about how to file for court, collecting after reciving a judgment, ect ect. here is the dakota county court webpage.
http://www.co.dakota.mn.us/courts/conciliation.htm

there is alot of information on it about how to file, what happens when you win the judgement, how the defendant recives his summon, what they are required to do when they lose. ect ect.

here are a few of the things that will happen
(for the defandant)
"How to pay a judgment
The court recommends that payment be made directly to the creditor (the party the money is owed to). Payment may also be sent to the court, but the check must be made payable to the creditor and not district court. The court will then forward the check to the creditor by mail. It is your responsibility to obtain and file with District Court a satisfaction of judgment form signed off by the creditor. Remember, judgment records are public and credit bureaus routinely take information from them. If your judgment is not paid before it becomes final, it may have an adverse affect on your credit rating.

When you pay the creditor, obtain a statement of payment called a satisfaction of judgment from the party you paid and file it with the court. If this is not filed, your record will show an unsatisfied judgment which may affect your credit rating."

"What happens if you fail to appear at the hearing?
If the defendant does not appear, a default judgment may be entered. If plaintiff does not appear, the claim may be dismissed or a default judgment may be entered in favor of the defendant on any counterclaim."

there is alot under this "How to collect a Judgment" so i'll post the link
http://www.co.dakota.mn.us/courts/collecting_judgement.htm

it could end up being along nad draawn out process the more i look at it. one thing that he site says though is that alot of peopel will settle outside of court when the recive their summons. take care!

Joel

So, I've been filling out paper work today for filing for court. Its a pain in the butt, but oh well, I'm going to do it. I talked to the Hennipen County Courts to find out what I need to do (you file in the county that the defendant lives in.) Well, while I'm filling it out, I've run across a few questiosn that hopefully somone can help me with here.

One thing is im sueing the driver of the vehicle (19) and the owner of the vehicle. I have the address of the driver on my police report, but the onwer and insurance holder is by a different name. (Remember, the vehicle had storage insurance, not liability and the driver was not the owner, so that is why I'm going after the owner as well) I have the name of that person and license plate number from the car. I need to have his address for the paperwork im filling out. When I called the courthosue to ask them, they said that if I do not put the address on it of the person, I am in charge of serving them. She said that I would probably have to talk to a sherrif about it or somthing. Also, since I am claiming over $2500 in losses, I have to serve both the defendants with their court summons.

Now what does this mean exactly? I asked the ladt from the court hosue, but it never seemed to make sense to me. I THINK that means that I will be getting the information back for court, and I have to send them out in the mail. Can anyone help me with this, in what they mean? thanks!

I'm sending it out tommorrow if i can get the questions answered, or it will be monday at the latest. I should probably go to the police station and ask them about, and I may do that tommorrow, or at the latest monday. Wish me luck

PS, Purple Reign, give me a call or shoot me a PM about what you did. The number is 612-961-1038. If no one answers, leave me a voice mail and i'll get back to you. thanks!

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the unfortunate history of my GT here

Papers are in the mail, now i wait to hear back when court is........

Man...I hope you get either yr car fixed or enough money to start a new project from this guy. Good Luck!!!!

wel, sorry it took so long to get this posted, sincei promiced it a while ago, but here is the very last picture i took of my car BEFORE the accident. it was the weekend before, so it is a very good example of what it looked like.

and here is the part of the accident from the police that describes what happened along with a diagram

i am still waiting to hear back from the courts.
thanks for all the supportive comments, it has helped alot
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the unfortunate history of my GT here

[This message has been edited by justa6 (edited 11-16-2004).]

Hope everything turns out ok.
-Jon

I am so depressed after reading your story. I also only have laibility as the Fiero's just aren't worth much. Make sure you follow through with the court process. Remember as you fill everything out that the system has been designed to be difficult. That way only the people who have truly been wronged will take the time to figure it out. Keep that in mind, ask questions, and have faith in our legal system. The best thing about your accident was that it was not the kid's car. If it was his car, you'd be up a creek. The parents have assets, and that is important. As someone previously mentioned, you can file a lein against homes, and I think automobiles (maybe not). One more thing: add up everything I mean EVERYTHING, and make sure it adds up to a lot. Are you sure your neck doesn't hurt? Include anything you bought for your toe - hospital, tylenol, etc. Do not explicitly lie, but make sure everything is included. If it gets to court he will pull every story about being abused as a kid, or haviing no money, laid off, poor little innocent kid, and the judge will always knock some of the money you ask for off. So, just like any negotiation, if you start high, you might end up where you really wanted to be.

Sorry about your loss.

justa6, can you post the whole accident report.

I am curious on how the Trooper coded the report, (those are the numbers along both sides).

If you want I'll tell you what they mean, it may help in court.

here you go fierohoho. i took of a little bit of the info (personal stuff). i have a decode sheet also that they gav me when i got the report. also, im going to send you a couple copys of somthing that i want you to look at. it is the police report, and a copy i got from the cop when the accident happened.
(you are the cop, right? )

Joel

quote Originally posted by carbon: I believe that they reserve that for criminal trials... not so much for civil trials.

I wouldnt jump to that conclusion too fast.................they will issue a bench warrant for a simple moving violation !!!

Man, that's heart breaking. I know what it's like to work your butt off and be sahfted by someone else's boneheadedness.

Good luck

Wow, I haven't looked at the forums in a long time, this just makes me sick. I got my fiero this summer, and it is absolutely beautiful. I haven't driven it much at all. Now it's got 19k miles on it, and for the winter it's going to sit in the garage. I know after going through the process for looking specifically for a fiero that as everyone here knows the actual value is FAR above that of book value. I have no idea where they get the book value numbers from but it's obviously not real world pricing. I hate hearing about any fiero at all that is no longer on the road, because they're all beautiful cars and it's just devastating to think that another one might never be out there again.

To say a few things, yes when the defendant doesn't show up to court it's standard procedure to find in favor of the plaintiff; also you absolutely should run the estimate to an extremely high realistic number. The reason for this is, when you go in to court there is a slight chance (probably even pretty good in your case) that they will find in full favor of you, but the problem is if you run the number too low the court system will never let you add costs on during the process, so you can never go higher but they can always push it lower. It sounds like with everything here you should do well in court. The real problem however does come in when the defendant has to make payments, and that is usually the hardest part. The court will not normally do too much about it once the case is over to ensure that the defendant is making reasonable and prompt payments.

I'm not a lawyer but I have picked up a few things in a few of the business law classes I've taken.

After all that said... I wish you good luck.

ok, so i sent in stuff for small claims court soem time ago, and was wondeirng if anyone knwo show long it takes to har back from them. i think its been close to 2 weeks now since i sent the papers in. anyone have any experiance with this? or how long it usually takes to hear back? thanks

Joel

Well like any government agency I would give them plenty of time. They seem to have a different sense of urgency then the rest of us.

yeah, i know, i was just hopign that it wasnt like EVERY government agent. oh well. at least there is no limit on when i can sue him. it just sucks, casue this just pushes everything back further

Joel sorry it took me so long to reply, my old computer crashed so we had to bite the bullet and get a new one and I've been offline for awhile.

I'll de-code the report and post when I can and yep, I'm a cop.

If you have something else to send me use the e-mail tab on my post.

HoHo

quote Originally posted by fierohoho: I'll de-code the report and post when I can and yep, I'm a cop. If you have something else to send me use the e-mail tab on my post. HoHo

Now how is he going to get a doughnut through there???

NEWS FLASH!!!!!

Court is scheduled for FEBRUARY 10, 2005 at 1:30 PM. i have a little time to get my case together (even though it already is)

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the unfortunate history of my GT here

Excellent, hang in there!

JazzMan

Good luck!

SO you wont get any money untill February? That sucks. Good luck and hang in there.

do like wanda sykes and go to his house with a tow truck MUAHAHAHAHAHA! .. that shows awesome, In any event thats good that you got court scheduled , sucks people are morons... hope you get everything you need out of them to repair your car...

Good luck..

quote Originally posted by Silicoan86: SO you wont get any money untill February? That sucks. Good luck and hang in there.

well, when he gets his sumons, he may want to settle outside of court, wich would be sooner than the court date, but if we do go throught he whole court stuff, and i get a court order sayign he has to pay, its still a matter of getting it from him. all a pain in the butt

Joel

quote Originally posted by justa6: well, when he gets his sumons, he may want to settle outside of court, wich would be sooner than the court date, but if we do go throught he whole court stuff, and i get a court order sayign he has to pay, its still a matter of getting it from him. all a pain in the butt Joel

Once you get the judgement you go down to the courthouse and file liens against everything they own, like thier car. If they try to sell their car the buyer will have to pay off the lien before the title can be transferred, that's a big deal breaker for most people. I think that with a lien you may even be able to get the title to thier car in your name, at which point it's your car and you just go get it with a tow truck. Hehehe. That'll get their attention.

JazzMan

OK, finally got off my a55 to de-code the accident report so here goes.

Starting on the left side by the numbers:
2-Fail to yield right of way
10-improper turn
6-Making left turn
1-Normal (no drugs/alcohol)
1-None (recommendations for driver)

Now the right side:
1-No clear contributing factor
--
1-Going straight ahead following roadway
1-Normal (no drugs/alcohol)
1-None (recommendations for driver)

I think you should contact Tropper Grothem #154 and see if he issued the other driver a ticket, it doesn't say in the report.

If he didn't insist he does, tell him your getting hosed because there's no insurance on the other car.

This kid should have been cited for fail to yield and no insurance at a minimum in my opinion.

Contact the Trooper at 651-779-5900, this is the district office he works out of.

Good luck with things, LMK if you need anything, HoHo

if you do take their car and part it i would like to have the transmission.

i can feel for you on this one, but i also am sorry that someone wrecked a v8 sho. there arent that many around and dumbass people keep trimming there numbers......

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Brandon Edmonds

1996 Taurus SHO (my baby)
1986 Ford EXP (goin bye-bye soon hopefully)
1986 Fiero (to be my street rocket)
1977 yamaha xs750-2D (in pieces right now, doesnt appear that it will be done for summer, unfortunately)

quote Originally posted by fierohoho: OK, finally got off my a55 to de-code the accident report so here goes. Starting on the left side by the numbers: 2-Fail to yield right of way 10-improper turn 6-Making left turn 1-Normal (no drugs/alcohol) 1-None (recommendations for driver) Now the right side: 1-No clear contributing factor -- 1-Going straight ahead following roadway 1-Normal (no drugs/alcohol) 1-None (recommendations for driver) I think you should contact Tropper Grothem #154 and see if he issued the other driver a ticket, it doesn't say in the report. If he didn't insist he does, tell him your getting hosed because there's no insurance on the other car. This kid should have been cited for fail to yield and no insurance at a minimum in my opinion. Contact the Trooper at 651-779-5900, this is the district office he works out of. Good luck with things, LMK if you need anything, HoHo

thanks hoho, i'll be trying to contact him again. troopers seem to be difficult to get ahold of, im glad that i got the accident report as fast as i did.

Ive been following this thread for a while. Im sorry to hear about your GT. but Im glad your OK. Out of curiousity though. Is the GT gonna be fixable? Or is it toast?

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