Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi I'm David Cantor with the Law Offices of David Michael Cantor.
Today I'm going to talk about Hit-and-Run or Leaving the Scene of an
Accident.
Now the definition is, there has to be an accident, regardless of who's at fault
there's an accident and that the person fails to remain at the scene
or fails to give notice in a conspicuous spot that's
like leaving a note on somebody's windshield
or they failed to exchange information. That means they get out, maybe they have an argument
the person drives away.
Now the punishment, if this accident involves
death or serious physical injury and the person is at fault for the accident who
left,
they're facing probation with zero (0) days jail up to a (1) year in jail
or prison of three (3) to twelve point five (12.5) years in prison. Now,
if the accident was not caused by the person who left for example you're sitting
at a red light
motorcyclist flys up behind you hits you flips over dies
and yet you look behind you just take off, well
you're still leaving the scene of have a serious
injury accident and you're facing probation with zero (0) days in jail up to a (1) year in jail
or prison of two (2) to eight point seven five (8.75) years. Now if there's no
serious physical injury there's accident it could be probation with zero (0) days in
jail up to a (1) year in jail
or prison of six (6) months
to two and a half (2.5) years and if there's no injury at all just your typical
fender-bender and the person leaves,
they're facing a misdemeanor. That's probation with zero (0) days in jail up to six (6)
months in jail.
Now the defense's, the most common defense is no knowledge of the accident,
meaning there's only a bump and you didn't realize as you're backing out of a parking
space.
The others is you thought you hit something on the roadway like a something in the
road you bumped over when in reality
you came into contact with another car that was behind you,
or you struck something you thought woah that was a coyote
or what just happened, I just hit debris in the
roadway when in reality, it was another person,
that as a defense. Now one other defense is necessity,
that's when a road rage is occurring or it's a lone female in a really bad area
and she doesn't want to get out and she's really nervous, and
instead she just takes off and makes a mistake of not calling 911
to report it. Now the reasonable person standard is the key,
was it reasonable for why the person left or did the person think they
exchange enough information even if this all comes into play we can still engage
in what's called a
misdemeanor compromise, negotiate with the alleged victim
and have them say yes this amount of money will fix my car, I am satisfied
they sign a misdemeanor compromise in a covenant not to sue,
we give that to the court and we can get the misdemeanor charge dismissed,
many times we can also get felonies dismissed when we do the misdemeanor
compromise.
If you got our victory section in our website, you'll see we have a lot of wins
if this situation applies to you call us or go to dmcantor.com
and contact us and set for Free Initial Consultation.