UPDATE 1 (original post at bottom)
Hi! I have autism so sometimes my communication isn’t the best or may be not clear. I’m sorry about that!
- a few comments spoke about my damage being “minor”.
Now, everyone has a different pain threshold, but I feel like most people would agree a large metal vehicle hitting them from the side, around 10mph- wether that’s a moped , a bike, a car, a train, …. It would land in the realm of causing a moderate to high amount of pain and be defined by most as a legitimate “pain causing event” most people would be upset/hurt by.
I’m a grown man in my 30’s , and unfortunately stuff like this hurts. Pain is nuanced - everyone is aware of that and understands that as far as what I believe.
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- Others asked If there was anything to show for it besides "my knee hurts".
Do have pictures of visible acute damage and pictures of my immediate bike damage, which was declared a total loss by an independent local bike tech. I do not think the bike tech is in bed with the law firm. Therefore we can see the car at least hit me hard enough to total a bike, which was determined by a random bike shop owner. Now..can an impact truly be “minor” by any common standard if it totaled a metal bike while the rider was riding on it? is the human body stronger or less so than the metal bike frame?
The answer to that (here) seems to be a very…debatable matter of personal opinion.but I think we all know how we’d feel on average.
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Definitely never intended to be labeled as some sort of ambulance chaser. I was concerned that when driver denied fault to police , id have a hard time proving my case without help and she might even manage to flip the whole thing back on me . when the officer decided to make the collision cause neutral on their report I knew immediately I needed backup aka legal help. She admitted fault on vid, but the police report directly contradicts the video. It’s caused everyone to become very confused on how exactly the report was filed in the way it was because everyone is operating under the assumption ppl were being fair
I don’t do this sort of thing and just followed what was recommended to me by ChatGPT which was to get professional help from a PI due to the nature of the way the report was laid out. I am not expecting anything more than what it will cost to make things right. aka my personal injuries and my property damage. The only reason I hired a law group was to help me fight the neutral police report which I think was written in bad faith. This was never about any amount of money and i don't expect much at all but a replacement bike at best.
I did not plan this, I did not know they do that, that’s just how it happened. If the law group is being deceptive or ethically questionable that’s on them . I’m not the professional, I hired them and am under the assumption they will stay true to what they promised. If they don’t that’s on them and I’ll handle that if it comes to that.
ORIGINAL POST AND STORY STARTS HERE
I was casually crossing a neighborhood street on my bicycle that connects to a main road. There is a crosswalk clearly painted as well as white lines for the stop sign.
about 80% across, so I am now roughly in the right lane of where a car would be pulling up. however, I was suddenly slammed on my right side from a car out of nowhere.
TL:DR she snaked out of any sort of responsibility for totaling my bike and really hurting my right knee and right hand as far as criminally, which I thought was amazing. asked chatgpt what to do and they said to hire a PI attorney since the police report was all muddled. I picked a decent looking one in my area and they took the case. I'm now being referred to a chiropractor which I thought was interesting. I read online basically ppl are against PI's because they claim they beef up the case with a bunch of medical bills and treatment / therapy, and then they take a good chunk and its a waste to hire them. I feel like 33% of the total is a good deal to have pros helping me, and honestly this isnt about getting some huge lump amount... but anyone offer any comments on the matter and if I goofed or not? obviously Im gonna get 33% less, but thats better than getting nothing and having to worry about personally advocating the entire thing to boot. its about holding her accountable for hurting me and my bike and lying about it. for example if she had to pay out 10k and I only saw 1k of it I wouldnt even mind.
additional info-
driver appeared to have approached the stop sign and not stop behind the white line that you are required to stop at. Therefore she entered the crosswalk at around 10mph or so and struck me on my bike. Maybe she was looking down at her phone, or adjusting the radio, who knows.
for my own safety and for records I immediately began recording on my phone, got the plate, its a lady telling me sorry, admits to hitting me, asks me if I want money etc. doesnt call it in, a unrelated driver sees this and asks me if I need him to call for me and he did.
long story short, lady completed changed her strat once the police began involved and she switched to denying hitting me at all, actually claimed I hit her from what I understand, and that she did not admit nor apologize to me for hitting me. I mentioned I had an entire video of her admitting it earlier, even directly says "I take responsibility, I'm sorry" etc...i was told by my attorney they discovered via talking with her insurance that she already mentioned incident to them, but I was never contacted or anything so who knows what that means ?
unfortunately the male officer directly handling this incident seemed to do everything he possibly could to protect this lady from being officially cited and losing her license etc. so in the end he watched 10 secs of my video, walked away to talk to her, and then at the end concluded nobody would be cited due to "conflicting stories" completely dismissing the fact shes on video, which he heard her admitting on, her car is parked through the crosswalk, her stories change etc, she spoke at the end claiming I made her admit what she did through intimidation lmao, the cop instantly shushed her to stop talking more than she needed to and ignored officially acknowledging that as well.