Can I sue a police dept. for pursuit of a vehicle that struck mine?

by **jolie** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:46 pm

NOTE: I'm actually posting for my girlfriend.
Police in Clinton, IA were in a high speed pursuit of a suspect. The chase went on for quite some time, an hour or so I believe. This was all in town, not open roads. The chase ended when the suspect ran a stop sign and plowed into my girlfriends car at roughly 70mph. She was minding all traffic laws and nearly stopped at the time of the collision. Oh, and this was in a residential area, speed limit was 25mph.

by **gofraidh34** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:47 pm

People have sued for much less nonsense, go for it!

by **taillefer** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:54 pm

Insurance will take care of that, that is why people have insurance.

by **arrigo** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:57 pm

I'm sure you find a lawyer to take this case but who had the first, last, and clearest chance & duty to prevent the accident? The driver of the pursued car, likely not a good insurance risk.
You'll end up having to sue the suspect, good luck with that.

by **thom** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:16 pm

I suppose you should. But you would have to sue the driver of the car that hit you first.

by **barnett** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:22 pm

You can sue all you want it does not mean you will get anything! In this case the only thing that you will probably accomplish is to make the lawyer you hire richer. You can file a suit against the person the police were chasing but if he does not have anything you will not collect anything. Suing the police will not get you anything.

by **elkan80** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 7:25 pm

Theoretically you could sue the police department, but in these case you described above it might not be a good idea. You'd be better off letting you insurance handle the lawsuit and the primary responsible party should be the guy the police were chasing you crashed into your girlfriend's car.

Legally, under the U.S. Constitution, only states have civil immunity, their agencies and employees do not. You could make a negligence argument against the police by saying that they were the proximate cause for making the driver they were chasing hit your girlfriend's car, but a court/jury may not find them responsible as they could raise the defense of necessity. The only benefit to suing the police is that if you win, you'd probably actually get money. There's a good chance that the guy who hit your girlfriend's car probably wasn't insured and/or is broke.

From: http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/negligence.html

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