Bumped a handbag

[Sutter]

Today, while reversing my car, a woman stepped out behind it. I was going at about 0.5kmh, bumped her bag and stopped at the same time. No one hurt, nothing in the bag broken, I was already reversing when she stepped into the path of the car (would have to have been less than a foot away).
Now, I fully expect this woman to try and sue or somthing in about a weeks time, while nothing happend, she just looked very 'rightous'
What should I do?

[dwarfthrower]

Take photos of the location where it happened.

What were you in the process of doing? Backing out of a driveway or a parking spot? And why was she stepping out behind you?

[Sutter]

I was backing out of a parking space, she wanted to cross the road, nevermind the crossing 10odd meteres away. Apparently, this is the second time this has happened to her.

[Vardsy]

Did you get her address and contact details?

Were there any witnesses?

[oggy]

Sell everything you own and put all your assetts into your missus`s name.......roflmao!

i`m serious..........

[Vardsy]

way to kick things off n00b with a smart arse comment in the Law forum

[Sutter]

Did you get her address and contact details?
Stupidly, no
Were there any witnesses?
Yes, two of her friend, one of mine.

[MyPetMonkey]

Stupidly, no

Well did she get yours?

[Something Fast]

It's pretty hard for her to sue in these circumstances considering she can't get damages for anything?

[Vardsy]

It's pretty hard for her to sue in these circumstances considering she can't get damages for anything?

What if she says since the accident she has developed elbow pain that makes it impossible to perform her everyday duties - or some crap like that?

[Sutter]

It's pretty hard for her to sue in these circumstances considering she can't get damages for anything?

That's why I didn't get hers, I thought everything was cool, when she asked for mine, I gave it to her. Driving away, I thought more, I think she did it deliberatly and will make something up later.

[Vardsy]

Did she ask for ID - I would have politely declined saying that unless there was something she would like me to compensate her for (broken items etc) then for privacy's sake I would prefer not to

**Edit**

That is hindsight of course.........you always think of that sort of shit after you have blurted it out - I have been caught out like that before

[dwarfthrower]

If she was crossing the road 10m from a crossing then she was jaywalking and totally in the wrong.

Take photos of the location where it happened - especially showing the proximity to the crossing. Get your witness to write down everything they recall and hang onto their notes.

Should be fine.

[MyPetMonkey]

Yes but hindsight is great.... :D

[Vardsy]

If she was crossing the road 10m from a crossing then she was jaywalking and totally in the wrong.

Take photos of the location where it happened - especially showing the proximity to the crossing. Get your witness to write down everything they recall and hang onto their notes.

Should be fine.

best advice right there - regarding the photos depicting how close or far she was from a pedestrian crossing

[Sagacious]

The road rules provide that vehicles must give way to all pedestrian traffic and not the other way around (this is because pedestrians are more apt to break than vehicles when struck by a vehicle).

You were reversing and are therefore required to be directing your attention to the rear of the vehicle. Further you have an additional duty to give way while reversing to anything which comes ito the path or is likely to come into the path of your vehicle whilst reversing.

Possible causes of action against you by the victim:

1. Trespass to her person (the fact that you hit her or an item of her apparel which was on her person is sufficient to establish this claim). Damages = nominal.

2. Action for negligently inflicting damage and loss upon her. Requires her to have suffered actual loss and or damage. Requires her to prove the same by producing medical and/or other experts reports. Also requires her to have not cointributed to her injuries by say stepping in front of a mving vehicle in circumstances where it is reasonable to suppose that the driver of the vehicle might not be able to avoid her if she did so. Her damages are whatever she can prove discounted by her contribution to that damage. This is one your compulsory third party insurer would pick up and fight if she brought such an action so from your point of view nothing to worry about.

Beyond that she could complain to the police and insist that they charge you with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle or driving without due care however given the lack of even the remotest semblance of an injury and the fact that the collision was a low speed impact i.e. 500m per hour it is likely that this will not be vigorouosly pursued even if a complaint is made.

At the end of the day you got nothing to worry about IMHOAIAAL (in my humble opinion and I am a lawyer):boxing:

[Sagacious]

Sell everything you own and put all your assetts into your missus`s name.......roflmao!

i`m serious..........
as far as asset protection advice goes this is pretty good although then the only thing you need to be wary of is your missus. Family Court can really suck.:banghead:

[psi_ko]

I fully expect this woman to try and sue or somthing in about a weeks time,

uh, call me stupid but isnt this why you have a green slip? wont the insurance company be liable for damages to the person?

edit---yeah what Sagacious said.

[Cassa]

We don't have green slips in victoria.

[dwarfthrower]

We do have Compulsory Third Party insurance though.

[Bostonmess]

Go to the hospital and claim you have whiplash. Then if she trys to sue you, counter-sue. :D

[imp]

If she was crossing the road 10m from a crossing then she was jaywalking and totally in the wrong.

Take photos of the location where it happened - especially showing the proximity to the crossing. Get your witness to write down everything they recall and hang onto their notes.

Should be fine.

Sounds advice. :) If you have all this prepared and ready you should be OK. It sucks we live in a world where ppl look for oppurtunities to sue or that we have to worry about people doing that.

: off topic : Playgrounds have become so boring since ppl have started sueing everyone else. :p They used to be so dangerous and fun!

[matty]

so did she sue?

[cyberwired]

yeah what happened with this?

[Supreme_Cmdr]

I second that, what happened?

It doesn't seem like she had anything serious she could sue over, though there are people that do this sort of thing for a living. So you say you have been the unfortunate victim of how many unrelated accidents?

[Aardvark]

I'd say you're fucked. Law doesn't take stupidity into account, yet

[d3kst3r]

You have a 1 in 10,000 chance of getting sued for this. Just relax, this is a weak case, no witnesses, no injuries/dmg therefore nothing to sue for. This is nothing but a minor incident and the lady was clearly peeved that you bumped into her, nothing more. However if you are suffering from paranoia, you could change your license plate number citing to the Transport Department that your original was damaged. The lady would only have the license number to track you down with for any legal battle, thus with the new license number, chances are the link between the lady, your old license number and your car would become lost within the massive piles of government paper work unless a full investigation was launced into it. However the chances of the lady actually organising such an investigation just to find a person who bumped her with a car without doing any damage is extremely slim.
However if you're still paranoid then do what I just told you and have a paint job done to your car also and don't state the new colour to the Tranport authorities for further confusion within their paperworks in any case they wish to track you down.

[jmoore]

what is with the thread necromancy?

[Sashasword]

I was wondering if Sagacious would jump in on this one...

Is is weird to find all that technical lawyer talk a bit of a turn on? :love:

Or is it just me?

[Sutter]

Forgive lack of update. I didn't get notified that something had happened in this tread. All is cool.

[MyPetMonkey]

Shit.... I had a fiver on you going down.....

On a man....

no, i was kidding again... i didn't have any money...

[chiefy]

so wat happened?

[moonstriker]

So... you were sticking your hand down some guys pants as he took a shit!?!?! WTF? That's just wrong dude. I'm confused as to where the handbag came in... :P

But seriously, five finger discounts are against the law. There are better ways to get cash without stressing out other poor people.

Edit: Re-read this and for it to make more sense, it's directed at MyPetMonkey's above post. ;)

[Sagacious]

I was wondering if Sagacious would jump in on this one...

Is is weird to find all that technical lawyer talk a bit of a turn on? :love:

Or is it just me?
better late than never....technical lawyer talk gives me wood!