Tips for Going to Small Claims Court

[thewatcher101]

My question involves a traffic accident in the State of: California - LA


I was in a car accident in a private parking lot - I am going to court with the following statement of facts and 5 pieces of evidence


Statement of Facts


On September 16, 2007 at the approximate time of 6pm. The plaintiff was leaving Home Depot on 500 S Marengo Ave. Alhambra, CA. As the plaintiff entered his vehicle , he looked at his rear view mirror, side mirror, and turned his head to observer for vehicles behind him. At that point he saw the defendant’s vehicle a white Toyota Tercel pass by. Once the vehicle pass the plaintiff began to cautiously back out. When the plaintiff moved approximately 3 feet back, he saw the defendant back up. The plaintiff responded immediate to this with warnings by honking his horn. The defendant did not yield and collided with the plaintiff’s vehicle. The damages was done can be seen on C. The pictures of the location can be seen on D. The point of impact can be seen on E. The evidence suggests that the defendant was moving against the flow of traffic and negligently backed up into the plaintiff's vehicle.

This was unresolved privately or through insurance as a result of the defendant refusing to give any statement.

I trust in the Court's fairness that it will grant me my request for the damages that the defendant has caused.

Evidence

A: Investigation Summary conducted by WAWANESA – that ruled in the favor of the plaintiff and that the defendant has refused to give a statement. Since the defendant has refused to give a statement thereby denying any responsibility.

B: The request sum of $697.68: The receipt for repairing the vehicle, rental, and court fees.

C: Pictures of the damaged that occurred on the vehicle. The point of impact was on the rear bumper on the driver side. This suggests that the point of impact was caused by defendant’s vehicle when she negligently backed up without looking for other vehicles behind her.

D: Pictures of the scene: At Home Depot 500 S Marengo Ave Alhambra, CA 91803. These pictures show that at the scene there are clear markers of STOP signs that indicate the direction of traffic. The defendant during the time of the accident was traveling against the flow of traffic and did not look behind her as she was backing up.

E. Figure 1: Figure one shows the positions of the cars during impact



The twist is now I am being countered sued and not even for an accident

The defendant claims I owe her $3000 for stress, time going back and forth, and monies spent to eat, while i am only asking for $700

so to sum it up I got hit, I was being pretty nice to her about the whole situation because she was in her 60s. When it was time to give a statement to the insurance she refused and by default claim no fault. I have to take her to court now. I stopped by her house on 3 separate occasions to deal with it privately. The first two occasions I couldn't find her, and on the 3rd I found her and she started yelling at me for why are you here so late why are you harassing me. Next day I had a clerk come to my house and said she has filed a restraining order, but there was not enough evidence and the guy was laughing about it too. It never followed through.

Lets just say I have never met such a person of her caliper.

Any tips to help me in this case would be much appreciated.

[Mr. Knowitall]

No witnesses?

The accident damage should be pretty clear, if she backed into you. She could argue that you were both backing up at the same time, although who can know? If your pictures are clear, they might help indicate that there was no front-to-back scratching on your car, suggesting that it was in fact stationary.

I suspect you're going to have difficulty collecting a judgment.

The twist is now I am being countered sued and not even for an accident

The defendant claims I owe her $3000 for stress, time going back and forth, and monies spent to eat...

How does that work? Stress from what? Time going back and forth to what? Why does she think you need to buy her food?

[thewatcher101]

Well went to court today - the judge dismissed her case


and awarded me half of what I was asking for

[M'sta Mikey]

Nice job! It's not so hard after all if your prepared - just nerve-racking

When I sued another under roughly the same circumstance, I asked for $500 for the deductible and $200 for the rental car (knew I wasn't going to get it but asked anyway). I was awarded the $500.

Did the judge explain why half or what that the cost of your deductible? Just curious.

[thewatcher101]

my evidence let him to believe that there was negligence on her part - but could only prove partial negligence - hence I was only awarded half

it was nerve-racking - but if i had to do it again I would still do it - i learned a lot from this experience and got a judge that was very critical during cross examination


what i didn't get was why they had to raise their voice to almost screaming at you in order to question the evidence - being loud did nothing - maybe it would scare a few but I found it irritating