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If you were the victim of a minor hit and run in St. Louis, Missouri, you probably have many questions. Will police investigate a minor hit and run? How can you seek compensation for your injuries and property damage if you don’t know who struck you? And what if you never discover the culprit’s identity?
Police typically investigate hit and run incidents, no matter how minor, because they are crimes. Hit and runs also have insurance implications because Missouri is an at-fault auto insurance state. That means it’s even more important for police to identify the wrongdoer.
Fortunately, even when victims don’t know who struck them in an accident, it may be possible to recover compensation. A skilled attorney knows how to seek money for medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, and other losses. However, without knowing the identity of the person who struck you, your recovery could be limited.
Under Missouri law, leaving the scene of an accident, also known as a hit and run, is a criminal offense. Anyone who leaves the scene of a motor vehicle accident without providing their name, address, and vehicle registration or license number could face criminal charges that depend on the severity of the crash.
In a hit and run that doesn’t result in injury or property damage exceeding $1,000 in value, the crime is a class A misdemeanor. However, if an injury occurs or there is significant property damage, the crime’s classification increases to a class E felony. If the crash results in a death, fleeing the scene is a class D felony.
These criminal classifications are key because they may impact how much effort the police put into finding the person who struck your vehicle. When serious injury or death occurs, the police will be more incentivized to find the wrongdoer. But what about in the case of a minor accident that doesn’t cause serious injuries?
Understandably, many hit and run victims don’t feel that the police are as invested in finding the culprit as they would like. However, as long as you file a report with the police, they will be on the lookout for whoever collided with you.
As an at-fault auto insurance state, Missouri requires all drivers to have the following minimum amounts of liability insurance:
Under normal circumstances, you would file your insurance claim with the at-fault party’s liability insurance policy to recover compensation for your injuries and property damage. However, this isn’t possible when you don’t know the identity of the at-fault driver.
The good news is that filing a fault-based liability insurance claim isn’t your only option for seeking compensation after a minor hit and run. Missouri also requires all drivers to have uninsured motorist coverage.
In Missouri, unidentified drivers in hit and run cases are treated the same way as uninsured drivers. After a hit and run accident, victims can file a claim against their uninsured motorist coverage to seek compensation for their injuries. The required minimum amounts of uninsured motorist coverage in Missouri are:
This coverage extends to both you (the driver) and your passengers. However, uninsured motorist coverage only provides compensation for medical expenses and lost wages related to injuries. It does not cover property damage the same way liability insurance does.
To recover compensation for property damage through an uninsured motorist claim, you must have previously purchased uninsured motorist property damage (UMPD) coverage from your auto insurance company.
What if the police identify the person who struck you after you’ve already recovered compensation through an uninsured motorist claim? If your uninsured motorist claim didn’t cover all of your expenses, you can still file an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver. However, if you do this, you may have to reimburse your insurance company for the compensation it paid through your uninsured motorist claim.
If you don’t need additional compensation from the at-fault driver, your insurance company may file a lawsuit against them to recover compensation for what it paid you through your uninsured motorist claim. In this case, there is nothing you need to do. The lawsuit is between the at-fault driver and your insurance company.
But what if you need additional compensation and the deadline for filing an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit has already passed? Under Missouri’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases, victims have five years to file a lawsuit against the at-fault party. Normally, if you fail to do so within this period, you lose your right to seek compensation for your injuries and property damage.
However, the deadline for filing your claim may be extended in the event of a hit and run. Since you can’t reasonably be expected to file a claim against the liability insurance policy of a driver whose identity you don’t know, the time limit may be paused until police identify the driver. Even if it takes police a while to investigate the hit and run, you may not lose your right to seek compensation from the at-fault driver or their insurance company.
If a hit and run driver struck you in St. Louis, Missouri, contact Goldblatt + Singer at (314) 231-4100 today. You’ll get a free consultation with an experienced car accident lawyer. Recovering the compensation you deserve in a hit and run case can be more complex than in some other types of motor vehicle accidents. That makes it essential to get the right legal representation. During your initial consultation, our lawyers will review your case and explain your options for seeking recovery. We’ll answer any questions you have about the legal process.