Thanks for the great info

I had a similar accident two months ago and it went against me. I am still not sure whether to file small claim.

What happen was the car in front of me pull to the sideway. While I was passing him, he came out again to the roadway and hit my car between the fender and passenger's door, dent the front wheel and made a big scratch along my car's body. His front bumper fell off. Of course he claimed I drove too fast.

I thought it was straight forward based on the damages which turned out to be totally wrong. The problem was that a woman police came. After a long talk with both of us, she decided that I tried to passed him while he was stilling parking and ended up scratching his bumper off (which I did not know until later from police report). In the report there were no evidence other than that debris were near the center of the road which she thought suggested his car still had the right of way. But his car came out and hit my car while I passed his car and accident of course happened in the middle of the road. Another thing she used against me was he said he was parking therefore I should yield. She thought I was trying to go around a car that was parking and scratched that car because people usually like to go around a slow car.

I tried to have the police report corrected by talking to her sergent. Without any fact or explanation he simply refused by agreeing with her.

I am hesitant about filing a small claim because of the police report which put me at disadvantage. The other side insurance simply declined the claim based on the report. Does anybody know whether I would better to have it corrected before filing the small claim?

The repair cost will run ~5k. I would really appreciate if someone could give me some advice. Thanks,