ok so i drive a 15 passenger van on the weekends for extra money (made $500 friday night) but on thursday i was pulling into this girls driveway and I hit her car parked in the street with the running board of the van. It made the loudest noise and scratched up the front left side of her 98 honda civic bumper. she comes out to the van screaming at me and says she's calling the cops. obviously she's been drinking. i try to negotiate and tell her i'll pay itout of pocket and everything but she wasn't having it. she told me she's been hit three times and dicked over all three. after looking at the damage i realize her front end has other damage than what I did. I think she's going to try to get me to fit the bill for all three accidents. Any idea how I can stop her from doing this? the cops filled out a report which i can pick up tomorrow. any idea what this will cost me? there was some deep scratches on her bumper and thats the only damage i did. i'm thinking if she comes back with anything over like $750 I'll tell her i'm going through insurance and she wont see money for months. but i've never been in an accident before and i'm sure she's just going to pocket it. any ideas? i need advice as to what to do.

 

Is it to late to get pictures to document the existing & new damage? Read the police report carefully and see if they note the existing damage on her car. If you decide to go through insurance the adjusted should be informed of the per existing damage. A good adjuster should be able to tell what is new and what is old. Going through insurance will most likely raise the rate paid by the van owner since other car was parked there is 0% fault on the other party.

If she agrees to be paid out of pocket draw up an agreement signed by both of you so she cant try something down the raoad.

 

true yeah that makes sense. she took pictures and her front fender was bent but not by me! there was a rust spot where the paint was chipped. that was obviously not me. I looked at the spot where i scratched the bumper and it was soooo fresh looking compared to the other spots. any idea how much i should expect to pay? the scratch was about 12" long and there was probly six scrapes all parallel to eachother. even if they replace the whole bmper how much? no dents at all.

 

Do a junk yard search to see how much a used part would be, then add a little for prep/paint and install. If it can be repaired, bondo, then it should not be that bad. See what she gives you as a price, then talk to the body shop yourself just to be sure that she is not trying to have you pay for all the damage.

Just scrapes I think can be repaired as long as they dont go all the way through the bumper.
Some bondo, flex and paint. Dont let her scam you whatever happens.

You should only take care of your damage, obvisouly, but it may be easier to repair all the damage for her at once so if she is doing that get an itimized bill showing exactly what your damage cost to repair.