I was in an accident recently and was cited with an unsafe lane change. I believe what happened is that the other driver attempted to accelerate around me when I swung out a little to the left to make a wide right hand turn, mistaking the motion of my car for it heading into the left lane (I had my right turn signal on the whole time). I was making a right turn into a business out of the far right lane and though I did swing out, my tires never exited my lane. The damage was on the back passenger side of my vehicle, just behind the tire and the front driver's side corner of the other vehicle. I was cited for making an unsafe lane change based only on damage (and what the other driver stated). The officer made no attempt to go to the road and determine the actual area where the collision took place which I believe to be very different from the point that he diagrammed in the report and also of importance. Both vehicles were well off the road by the time the officer arrived as I was in front and was sure that I had been hit so I didn't expect there to be any problems... my first thought was to get out of the way :-\ There were people outside, but no witnesses. There were no injuries declared and combined damage is probably < 10k for both vehicles though I admit this is a complete guess.
My insurance has first accident forgiveness so my rates won't go up for my first at fault accident, but they will go up if I get points on my license. My question is how should I proceed? The path of least resistance seems to be to do whatever my insurance company works out with the other company as far as paying the damages and just pay my deductible if I'm found at fault. Then to retain a lawyer to reduce the ticket to an infraction that involves no points, even though I whole-heartedly believe that I did nothing wrong. Any advice?
My insurance has first accident forgiveness so my rates won't go up for my first at fault accident, but they will go up if I get points on my license. My question is how should I proceed? The path of least resistance seems to be to do whatever my insurance company works out with the other company as far as paying the damages and just pay my deductible if I'm found at fault. Then to retain a lawyer to reduce the ticket to an infraction that involves no points, even though I whole-heartedly believe that I did nothing wrong. Any advice?
