Minor accident, taking other party to court!

Three things.
1) Go in with pictures, documents, any paperwork you need -- and HAVE IT ORGANIZED. The court does not want to dither around while you hunt for a copy of your registration, etc. You need to be able to put your fingertips on anything, asap.
2) Wear a suit. Even if you only own an old one, wear a suit. If that's not possible, e. g. you're seven months pregnant and don't have a suit for maternity, or you just plain don't have one that fits and can't afford one, wear the most business-like clothes you own. For women, that means a tailored skirt at or below the knee, or tailored pants, with a blazer if you own one (if there's no blazer, then a sweater set is fine), and a nice, not too revealing blouse or sweater and close-toed shoes that would be worn with a skirt, e. g. pumps. For a man, that means tailored pants, a blazer if you own one, a button down shirt and shoes you would wear with a suit, e. g. oxfords. If there's no blazer, then a sweater is all right, just nothing too gaudy. You'd be surprised (maybe you wouldn't) at the number of people who go in wearing things like flip-flops, overalls, tube tops, tank tops, sneakers, etc. It is a court. Even a small claims court has some formality, so respect it.
3) Lose the attitude. Yeah, the other party is wealthy. But save it for outside of court. In court, you are yes, sir, no sir; yes ma'am, no ma'am; yes Your Honor, no Your Honor; please, thank you and you're welcome. For everything. You are the polite, clean-cut person working hard to make a living, not the whining jerk who complains that you have to take a day off work. I'm not saying that you, personally, are a jerk, but again there are a lot of people who go to court and think nothing of complaining to the court that they are inconvenienced. Well, it's not the court's fault that an accident occurred. So be on your best behaviors, with impeccable manners.

None of these are guarantees that you will win anything, of course, but they will help. I have been to court many, many times and have been up against pro se plaintiffs. The ones who impressed were organized, polite and businesslike. Be one of those people. Good luck to you on your court case.

Thanks jespah for valuable piece of advice. One of my mates is a practicing lawyer, and she pretty much said exactly the same things. Once again, thanks very much for your time and effort.

What about a witness? Was someone else there that saw what happened, not counting you or the other party of course.

TTH:

It was my first experience of a car accident, and I was way too occupied arguing with the other party rather than going to find anyone else who saw the accident. I know it does sound a bit silly, but I was too stressed to calm myself down and think reasonably. I mean surely if something like this happens to me again (touching wood), I would know what to do. There was also no one else in my car, I was returning from work.

Also it happened at the back of the hotel, near the loading zone. I was wondering if there are any security cameras around this area. I checked today, and there was one overlooking the place of an accident. I will be talking to security people tomorow; hopefuly they will have something for me then. Here is a question though, are they legally obliged to provide this sort of details (i.e. footage from their security cameras) to general public? Or do I have to get some sort of an order from the police/small claims court?

Sergenz86
It doesn't sound silly. I was scared and nervous when someone hit me the first time. The State Patrol was called so a report was taken. I know different agencies have different standards.

As far as I know and based on where I live, a business is not legally obliged to provide you a copy of the tape. It is totally voluntary on their part. If they said no, then you would have to get a court order. That is also assuming they still have a copy. Some cameras are set where the tape will record over itself after a set number of hours.

In the area I live, I have never heard where a store refused to give out the tape, if they still have it.

I wish you good luck

Edit to add this: Also, I know in your first post you said there weren't any witnesses. Sometimes though when people think back they will remember something or someone. You thought of security cameras and went and checked.

TTH:

Thanks for that. Hopefully, they keep their video recordings for more than just one day.

I live in New Zealand, thats probably why the police standards are different!

I hope for you they do keep tapes for more than a day and will voluntarily give you the tape. That would be great in court
if you have a tape showing what happened. The tapes normally have the date and time on the video too.

I don't think too much of people who do something, then lie about it. It still amazes me that people won't admit they did something
wrong, take responsibility for it and pay for what they damaged.

Still, if you are indeed not responsible for the accident, then I hope the truth comes out showing who the liar is.
I hope you come back and let us know what happened

Shiney metal is indicative of new damage.

Rusty metal even lightly is indicative of older damage.

Witnesses that saw you arguing may also be useful even if they did not see the accident.

Dont forget to ask for costs to be awarded against the other party. ALL costs. day off work, witness costs etc.

dadpad:

Thanks for the reply. But we are talking about damages made to plastic bumper.

Can you please clarify how witnesses that saw us arguing can be useful?

What did the witness hear/see. (If a witness can be found.)

TTH: I entirely agree with you. I have no respect for people like that too.

The other thing I did not mention before: I told him I was taking him to the court. Then he replied: "In that case you will have to talk to my personal lawyer. But I'd like to warn you: if you lose this case, court charges won't come cheap!"

Basically, nothing that can be very useful in court: me telling the other party of what has happened, and them refusing everything I say.

Yes, witness can be found. He is a friend of mine who at that time was close to the place of an accident.

Where I live we have small claims court. I don't know the current dollar amount but, it is probably around $3500 & under. You aren't allowed an attorney in small claims court.

In your case if there is no legal reason to talk to his attorney, then I personally wouldn't.

Yeah, thats what I heard from the police too. And thats exactly what I told him about his lawyer: "I will talk to him, only if I have to!". I am almost certain that he just wanted to bully me.

Usually, that is what they do in my experience (attorneys). The times I have spoken to them, my choice, they tried to bully me. It didn't work. In fact it led to me filling a lawsuit against their client. All I wanted was my out of pocket expenses reimbursed. The attorney said I would get nothing. Big mistake on their part. There was no question of fault so to this day I have no idea why they didn't just pay me my out of pocket expenses. The whole thing ended up costing them 4x what I originally wanted.