Long post ahead Help me with the California legal system. Accident, Injury, and Hit and Run inside

This past June I was riding my motorcycle to work on 60 West toward Los Angeles.  Traffic wasn't moving so I opted to do some lane splitting.  I was going approximately 40-45 on the edge of the number 1 HOV lane adjacent to the number 2 lane.  There was a double solid yellow line between the two lanes.  Legally, you can't cross this line.  Someone in a Mercedes CLC Coupe(those stupid pregnant sedan things) crossed the line and hit me.  This caused me to hit the car to my left and go rolling down the highway.

Luckily traffic was slow so everyone was able to stop before hitting me.  The Mercedes took off.  One of the people that stopped had been behind the Mercedes when the hit me and was able to act as a witness once CHP showed up.

I had been wearing a go-pro so I actually had footage which included the plate for the Mercedes.  I was taken to the hospital with broken fingers, cracked ribs and a partially collapsed lung.  Good times.   

I turned the video over to the CHP so they could track down the fleeing driver.  This is where things get interesting.

The CHP officer goes to the registered owners house and is told that the person moved out 2 weeks ago.  The officer asks for a forwarding address and the property manager refuses to give the information.  That ends the CHP investigation.  They tag to plate in the system so if he is ever stopped he will be questioned.

I hire an attorney.  They are super excited because I have the tape and its a 3 year old expensive Mercedes and they get 33% of whatever settlement they can get.

The suspects insurance company is notified and they begin trying to contact them.  The attorney also tries to contact him and run an asset search.  He opts to duck all attempts to contact him and apparently he has very little in assets found.  

His insurance company denies the claim since they can get in touch with him.  With that, my Uninsured/Underinsured coverage kicks in.  My bike and equipment are covered and my medical coverage only goes to 30k.

So far I have had three operations to put my fingers together and have run up some impressive hospital bills, not to mention lost wages, pain and suffering, yada yada yada.

My lawyer wants me to pursue this through the DA's office since it a Felony hit and run.  Their reasoning is that the DA will do it for free and they feel the CHP investigation ended prematurely.  I would guess the odds of a huge payday not happening are making them reluctant to spend anytime on it.

Since I am out of work on disability I conduct my own Google investigation.  I find information that he is an aspiring rapper.  He has been on tour and has an E-commerce site to distribute his stuff.  He is also part of a more successful rappers entourage.  I go on his instagram and he has a post of him with the car dated a few days after the accident.   

What would you guys do next?  I don't want to post his info online as it would come back to me.  Just for fun I looked up the copy right info on his logo and it looks like he never followed through on the copyright application.  I considered trying to copyright it myself just to be a thorn in his side.

Have you given your lawyer the information you have been able to find on him? If you have and he hasn't acted on it, move on to the DA, essentially giving them a case on a silver platter. They'll go after him and once they get ahold of him, I believe you can then bring your civil lawyer on to get yourself fixed and his insurance going.

Also, copyright the logo and their name. Just because.

hells yes, copyright the name and logo.   will be a treat for him to have to pay you royalties to use his own name.  

I would be suspicious the DA might not want to do much.  They likely have much bigger fish to fry in LA and really don't need to be filmed doing a felony arrest on a "rapper".

BTW- if it's less then $1000 damage (sounds like it might be more?, not sure how this applies to injury) it's not even a felony in CA anymore (must protect the poor criminals from prosecution, not really their fault you know).

Copyright, go to the DA, and if you're really feeling feisty..........call the local news stations. 

aircooled said:

I would be suspicious the DA might not want to do much.  They likely have much bigger fish to fry in LA and really don't need to be filmed doing a felony arrest on a "rapper".

BTW- if it's less then $1000 damage (sounds like it might be more?) it's not even a felony in CA anymore (must protect the poor criminals from prosecution, ot really their fault you know).

I'm guessing the 3 separate operations likely put this close to 6 figures in damages. 

z31maniac said:

aircooled said:

I would be suspicious the DA might not want to do much.  They likely have much bigger fish to fry in LA and really don't need to be filmed doing a felony arrest on a "rapper".

BTW- if it's less then $1000 damage (sounds like it might be more?) it's not even a felony in CA anymore (must protect the poor criminals from prosecution, ot really their fault you know).

I'm guessing the 3 separate operations likely put this close to 6 figures in damages. 

Injuries put it into a whole different category, yes.

I'm not a lawyer, so my opinion is worth what you paid for it.  That said, I'd guess that your attorney has looked into this guy, discovered that the expensive Mercedes is leased, concluded there are no assets to recover significant judgements from, and decided that a contingency case isn't worth the effort on his part.  That sucks, but he's got bills to pay too and there's not much point in following through on a lawsuit if the other guy only has a few grand to his name.

As for the DA, criminal prosecutions are something else entirely.  One of the points to having a criminal justice system is to remove the "is it worth it" aspect that governs civil suits.  I'm really surprised to hear that they haven't taken what seem like they should be simple steps to investigate/prosecute a felony injury hit-and-run.  Perhaps there might be a local newspaper interested in the story?

As for the IP thing, you can't copyright something you didn't create unless you have a contract with the creator specifying that the rights get transferred to you.  You might be thinking of trademarks instead, but trying to claim those out from underneath him might backfire.

Well if he gets a felony from this doesn't it also mean he's gone from aspiring to minted? 

Which will happen after you've got whatever you can out of him probably.

Lane splitting defenders remind me of German car owners.  It's the best ever until it isn't.

Sorry to be harsh about it but the world is full of truly uncaring people - the guy that hit you is one of those - although a friend of mine does joke that I'm the only living heart transplant donor.

I do wonder what taking over a zombie copyright would be like - I suppose he'll have more protection for that than you will have for your injuries because you know lawyers.  

codrus said:

.. I'd guess that your attorney has looked into this guy, discovered that the expensive Mercedes is leased, concluded there are no assets to recover significant judgements...

Good point.  Aspiring rappers are not exactly know for have large equity holdings.

.. I'm really surprised to hear that they haven't taken what seem like they should be simple steps to investigate/prosecute a felony injury hit-and-run..

One thing you may not be aware of is that LA is one of the hit and run capitals of the US, so LOTS go un-prosecuted (because they never find them).  You would think this might be a chance for an easy win.

A few thoughts come to mind here.  I have to believe they (the MB insurance carrier) didn't deny the claim simply for non-cooperation, especially if you have provided them with the video of the car hitting you.  A non-cooperation denial is relatively weak, if suit were to be filed they may (no promises) change their mind at some point.  I'm guessing there's another piece of this denial.  Unlisted driver, excluded driver, something like that. 

What are your UM limits?  If you don't want to post them here, e-mail me.  Your UM limits are separate from your MEDPAY/PIP limits.  So your $30k will cover the bills up to that amount and your UM should go on top of that.  I haven't dealt with CA in some time....thankfully...but ask if your UM limits are stackable or non-stackable.  If they're stackable and you have multiple vehicles on the policy, your limits increase.

Beyond that, just let it be.  It sucks, but those other avenues will be dead ends or maybe lead you in directions you won't want to go.

In reply to nutherjrfan :

Lane splitting is specifically legal in California.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Fully aware of that. It's been discussed on here many times. 

Cali should have stopped at right turn on red. 

The argument for is that's pure genius until you get hit by an inattentive driver.

Seeing that there's no lack of those well.....

TurnerX19 said:

In reply to nutherjrfan :

Lane splitting is specifically legal in California.

It is, but abrupt lane changes with no signal are common enough that eventually getting punted across the freeway is pretty much a given.  I have also seen someone punch the foot peg on their harley through the bumper cover of an altima, pin the throttle and do a 40 mph tank slapper inches away from the next few cars and take off too so I guess it goes both ways.

From the perspective I have, I don't feel lane splitting should be legal anywhere.  It just leads to too much potential trouble, unforunately like OP had.

This blows my mind. WTF is the police doing?!

I would have a really hard time letting this shiny happy person just walk away. I understand the reality of your lawyer not seeing a payday from this loser (and revenge not paying any bills), but I would take all the info I had and turn to the DA, just out of principle. If they don't act, at least I could tell myself that I've tried. Finding him should be easy. Finding him guilty should be easy. It blows my mind that the police left it with such little effort.

All the best to you.

To answer in my lay-man's terms.... 

Get everything that you can and everything that is possible from your own insurance.  That is what you paid for, coverage against the uninsured.  

That then means your insurance company will be out some dollars and being insurance companies, they don't just forget this stuff.  They will have the whole weight of the insurance company trying to hunt this guy down to try to get repayment for themselves.  If you want to think there will be justice, your insurance company will put "the hunt" on him.  The issues should follow him.  Probably like this car, his future cars will have to be owned and insured under a girlfriend's name.  

Get your money now, from your company.  

Let them try to get money (which he likely doesn't have) from the rapper.  

You said the GoPro footage IDed the car and the tag, but you didn’t say it IDed the DRIVER.

If the footage isn't a positive ID on the driver, you’ve got a weak case. 

Speaking as someone who has been struggling with an ongoing criminal action from an individual that been continuing for years, don’t expect the courts or law enforcement to help much. They’ve got plenty to do, and won’t be able to allocate the resources to solve this. The only thing you will get is aggravation. Get what you can from the insurance company and move on. 

And don’t give the guy any press. An arrest or court appearance will only increase a rapper’s street cred, and make him money. berkeley him. Give him nothing. 

Walk away with your dignity. 

John Welsh said:

To answer in my lay-man's terms.... 

Get everything that you can and everything that is possible from your own insurance.  That is what you paid for, coverage against the uninsured.  

That then means your insurance company will be out some dollars and being insurance companies, they don't just forget this stuff.  They will have the whole weight of the insurance company trying to hunt this guy down to try to get repayment for themselves.  If you want to think there will be justice, your insurance company will put "the hunt" on him.  The issues should follow him.  Probably like this car, his future cars will have to be owned and insured under a girlfriend's name.  

Get your money now, from your company.  

Let them try to get money (which he likely doesn't have) from the rapper.  

Actually, you'd be surprised to find out that they probably won't.  If he truly has little assets, they will just shut that pursuit down.  Can't get blood from a stone.  Now if he has attachable assets, different story, but that's not common.

As a minor note.  If this guy has some sort of recording deal, those deals generally don't give the artist anything, they are structured like a loan, so what they given must be payed back.  So he may be far more in debt than you might think.

SVreX said:

And don’t give the guy any press. An arrest or court appearance will only increase a rapper’s street cred, and make him money. berkeley him. Give him nothing. 

Walk away with your dignity. 

You don't think of a hit-and-run as a crime that could increase a rapper's street cred...

Unless the rapper can make the victim out to look like a rival gangster

In reply to GameboyRMH :

I don’t think much about the rap industry makes much sense at all. 

I believe it was you that once pointed out to me (correctly) that I was trying to make sense out of the actions of a psychotic. 

DC has an officer in each district attached to solely hit and runs.  If LA has that you could befriend him/her.

I have the contact info of the officer for my recent hit and run but just decided to let it go despite the insurance only covering a third of the damage.

At best he would have to have canvassed the area for private security camera footage. 

Thanks everyone, there is a ton of good information and exactly what I was looking for.  The big issue is the video didn't ID the driver due to the tint so I cant put him in the drivers seat.   At this point the they are saying get my insurance money, 30k from my bodily injury coverage, and let Geico  investigate.   I also learned he had reported the car stolen, but no one seems to be able to prove this to me.   The accident happened on 4 June, CHP revived the video on the 5th.  For whatever reason the didn't try to make contact with him until the 9th.  I would think the CHP would know about a theft report before they went to see him.  Or he put in the report after that date.  I also found his instagram account which shows a post of him and the car dated the 9th.  Ultimately, I will get 30k from my insurance then BCBS will seek funds to cover what they shelled out for my injuries.  So I am pretty well SOL.  Plus, my hand modeling career is over.

In reply to Steelpig :

I dated a hand model once. You’re not her, are you? 

SVreX said:

In reply to GameboyRMH :

I don’t think much about the rap industry makes much sense at all. 

I believe it was you that once pointed out to me (correctly) that I was trying to make sense out of the actions of a psychotic. 

There is actually solid logic to the "street cred" system, it's not psychotic, just morally askew: things that improve "street cred" would be things that essentially prove that you're a badass who lives the gangster lifestyle: Gun crimes and drug crimes, or attacking other gang members. Random, negligent hit-and-runs are far from relevant.

In the hacker world there is a similar "street cred" system. It's best not to get caught at all, but if you're going to get caught doing something it should be carrying out an impressive system break-in or being caught with the spoils from one. Easy targets or non-computer-related crimes don't help. Getting caught with a large amount of drugs wouldn't do any more for a hacker's street cred than defacing a megacorp's website would do for a gangster's.