How to get current insurance information from car owner of son&#39;s hit-and-run charges A month ago I had a hit-and-run on my property and car, and a few hours later they were found at his mother's house. Car owned by mother, driver is her adult son. Mother finally gave investigating officer an insurance card for traffic tickets. That insurance company informed me the policy expired ten months before, and mailed an official letter about it. A different officer told me the mother is also responsible for being the car owner and not having insurance. I don't know if she really has no insurance, or if she gave the old insurance to avoid a claim against her new insurance. Investigating police officer said both are uncooperative, won't answer phone calls or knocking on door. An arrest warrant was issued for son a few weeks ago. Police records won't give me information because it's an active case under investigation. I've spoken to the primary officer and prosecuting attorney office about the expired insurance, and requested they ask the mother if she has a new insurance, and if not can they charge her for not carrying insurance. They seemed to dodge the question and finally said I should fill out a restitution form or I can take them to small claims court. However, both options will take years to recoup my damage expenses whereas a current insurance policy can pay within a month. Son was finally arrested on two misdemeanors a few days ago, so a court case now exists against him, but nothing about his mother. She does not have an arrest warrant, nor a court case. Idaho law requires proof of insurance to register a vehicle. Vehicles can be registered for one or two years, but most drivers opt for one year since there's no discount for two years. I asked, but understand the DMV can't give me any insurance information they have on file for the car's VIN and owner. It's been ten months now, so there's a decent chance it's been registered with a new insurance company. My goal is to try to find current insurance, whether from the DMV, or to get them to cite/arrest mother for not carrying insurance, in which case she'll have to admit to no insurance or produce current insurance. Do I have any options to get the police or prosecuting attorney's office to do these things for me? If so, what's the quickest and most effective path?
The criminal charges against the driver and his mother are police business, not yours. You have a civil case for damages against the driver, and possibly his mother on the theory that she enabled her son's behaviour. Depending on the amount you should either sue them in the small claims court or else hire a lawyer. If you win the case and the driver was uninsured at the time of the accident then there are two outcomes: either they pay the damages or they go bankrupt. If the latter then sorry, you are out of luck. Also talk to your insurance company; if you are insured for this kind of event then they will take the case off your hands, pay you, and then litigate to recover the money themselves.
Each of the 50 states plus non-states has their own laws, but there is nothing general about contract or other law in the US that forces a rental facility to accept customers who don't have / won't get the insurance that they require. It is a reasonable requirement, because it protects their interest insofar as angry customers might sue the facility because their car was broken into, and many of them would mistakenly believe that their car insurance covers theft or destruction of contents (thus leading to a desire to sue, to cover the property loss). It may be just too much hassle and too risky for them to assume the correctness of a customer's claim that they already have adequate coverage and will maintain said coverage, with no practical means to verify the claim.
You are allowed to ask the police whatever questions you like. There is an upper limit that you can't refuse to obey a lawful order on the premise that you want to ask a bunch of questions, but they don't seem to have ordered you to do anything, so you can ask away. They have no obligation to tell you anything or to be truthful, except for certain questions like "am I free to go" when you want to leave and are testing whether you are under arrest. Even then they don't have to answer your questions right away. The police can therefore ignore you, especially if you are asking curiosity questions. It might be that they are restricted from giving information in certain circumstances (pertaining to the privacy of others). If there is an issue of legitimate concern (e.g. Little Billy has been beating up on cats again) and you feel that you need to know this, then you can request the police record on the matter. Certain information will probably be redacted under state law, but you could get a report that states that some [redacted] juvenile was beating up on animals. The Florida records law is one of the first in he nation, dating back to 1909. You can read this, to see if you think the circumstances match one of the exemptions, though all you have to do is make the request and be told that the record is exempt, then you will have some idea what was going on.
You do not contact the District Attorney's Office, the Police do that. You call your police department and they will dispatch a car to you. Meet with them and tell them the case. They will take the report back and get it to the D.A.'s office. The D.A.'s office will decide if there is a case or not. If they find there is a case, they will contact you for the next steps. It starts with a phone call to the police.
There is a form, which both parties to the sale sign. Note that it does entail paying sales tax. There are other aspects to the sale which reinforce the "It's not my car anymore" message, such as returning the plates and getting a receipt for the plates. Even doing the sale in a DMV lot would not help you.
This is an excellent explanation. All Australian jurisdictions have (in general) common road rules. In NSW these are enacted by Road Rules 2014 regulation under the Road Transport Act 2013. The relevant provision is Clause 306: 306 Exemption for drivers of emergency vehicles A provision of these Rules does not apply to the driver of an emergency vehicle if: (a) in the circumstances: (i) the driver is taking reasonable care, and (ii) it is reasonable that the rule should not apply, and (b) if the vehicle is a motor vehicle that is moving-the vehicle is displaying a blue or red flashing light or sounding an alarm. From your statement (a)(i) and (b) would seem to apply so it becomes a question if (a)(ii) does. Well, you don't know the circumstances so you can't judge if it is reasonable that the rule not apply: if the police car were involved in a collision, caught on a red light camera or booked then the driver would have to show that it was. It is worth noting that some road offences like drink or dangerous driving are not in the Road Rules, they are in the Crimes Act and so the exemption doesn't apply to them. It is also not a shield from civil liability although the difficulty of proving negligence goes up because disobeying the road rules is no longer enough.
No, there is no recourse. An yes, the potential "costs", both personal, financial, social, can be high and are not compensable under an investigatory hold scenario; however, it doesn't usually happen like that. There is no investigatory hold that long without arrest. If the police want to talk to you but don't have enough to arrest you, you can leave any time. If you call your lawyer, he/she will come to the police station and tell the cops to release or arrest you. If the police really want you to stay, likely there is probable cause and they can keep you anyway. The police can arrest you and keep you, without a warrant so long as there is "probable cause" to believe that a crime has been committed (by you). Once arrested without a warrant, this is what is usually referred to as an investigatory hold, where the law says you must be arraigned within 72 hours (some states it must be 48 hours, 1 day less than supreme court says is reasonable). During this time they can investigate their case against you and decide what, if any, charges they will bring. There is no recourse for this, (in the event they bring no charges) unless you can establish that you were held for no reason (including not being falsely identified) and that it was only to intentionally deprive you of your right to liberty. This is nearly impossible to prove, unless you really did nothing and the cop was just messing with you (for instance in a personal vendetta) and you can show that.
It seems that the Iowa authorities did attempt to notify the driver. If the letter of notification was returned because the driver changed his or her address, that is not the DOT's fault -- drivers are supposed to notify the authorities of changes of address -- indeed driving with a license with an out-of-date address is itself a violation in some US states. If the error was made by the postal service, that is still not the DOT's fault but they might be more willing to accept an appeal from the driver. In general, authorities must make a reasonable attempt to notify people of court or administrative actions, but if those notifications fail, the authorities can go ahead in many cases. Try explaining that one doesn't owe taxes because an IRS notice was misdelivered. It would be too easy to avoid unwanted governmental actions if nondelivery of mail were a valid excuse. It may well be that there is a procedure to get the suspension waived or ended early, perhaps involving taking the class that should have been taken, and perhaps paying an additional fine. Details of such procedures vary. A local lawyer who deals with traffic issues frequently would probably know what steps might be taken. It may well be that the original ticket mentioned a possible suspension, but it may not have. That also varies by state.