Another Driver Hit My Husband’s Car While He Was Stationary. Police Report Is Wildly Incorrect. Insurance Won’t Pay Out Or Determine Fault.

In NC. Last week, my husband was stopped at a red light in the middle lane of a 3-lane road. Even to where he was stopped, a left turn lane was just starting to open on the left. The car in the left lane of the 3 lanes had pulled partially into this new left turn lane, but they were also still partially in the leftmost of the 3 lanes due to traffic ahead of them. So there was a gap between the leftmost car and my husband’s car. Another driver coming from behind him tried to shoot the gap between the cars and missed, hitting my husband’s (stationary) car.

They both pulled over in a nearby parking lot, and the other driver admitted fault right away. My husband has pictures of both cars. Her car has damage all down the right side, his only has damage on the back left corner. He also has her saying twice, on video, “I swerved into the right lane”. Nobody was injured.

My husband called his insurance company and the police, and both said a police report was not necessary given the circumstances and how clear cut it seemed. So he got the other drivers contact info and left the scene (we know now this was a major mistake). Turns out the other driver then went to the police station and filed a report. The police called my husband, and he gave his side of the story over the phone. He also filed a claim with her insurance- both he and the other driver have the same insurance company, so it went in as a “joint claim”.

He got the verdict from the insurance today, and they are refusing to pay out/determine fault due to “contributory negligence” based on what was in the police report. He also received a copy of the police report, and it’s horribly incorrect. The intersection and direction of travel is wrong. The other driver is claiming my husband incorrectly changed lanes while getting off the highway and merged into her, which doesn’t even make sense based on their direction of travel and where they pulled over. All it states from my husband is that he “claimed the other driver swerved into him”- nothing about how he was stationary at a red light when it happened.

We are looking at several thousand dollars of property damage to repair his car, and we know for sure he is not at fault- how could he be if he was stationary?? What can we do?? Things we have tried:

• we contacted several lawyers in the area to see if they can help us. None will take the case since no personal injury is involved, only property damage

• we considered requesting an amendment to the police report, and we may still try to do this, but one lawyer told us it was extremely unlikely the police would be willing to amend since he wasn’t physically at the scene when it was filed

• we are trying to get footage of the accident from traffic cams and a local business, but odds are low they actually caught it due to the angle

We are considering calling the other driver (recorded obviously), telling her we have video evidence of her saying she swerved into our lane (which we do), and asking that she accept fault with her insurance or we may be forced to engage a lawyer. Is this a smart move?

We are also going to try to dispute the decision with insurance, emphasizing the photo and video evidence we have.

Failing all of this, is small claims court our only option? Is there a lawyer out there that would ever take this on?