If a fugitive running in a police chase or some random person scrapes your car driving by, do THEY pay for it?
While watching one of those reality police shows where the fugitive will wreck into someone else's car, I asked my dad, and also my friend who is quite wise in these situations whether those people had to pay for the damages they've done and they both said "No" or "It'd be one hell of a time getting the money out of them even after a court order." Which brought up the other question: If your car's parked on the curb and someone happens to drive too close either scraping one whole side of the car or knocking off a mirror and you get their license plates, would it be difficult or even possible to get them to pay?
You certainly would have the right to sue the person who hit and caused damage to the car. If you won your lawsuit against that person, you'd have the right to a money judgment against him/her.
I'm an attorney for a municipal government and I've dealt with cases where a fugitive has sideswiped parked cars during a police chase and the car owners sue both the fugitive AND the City/police officers who were chasing that fugitive!
Often, insurance would pay for something like that, though.
