Answering a Police Letter About a Hit-and-Run

Attorney Answer

Take the letter to a local criminal-defense attorney before you answer it, and do not call the number printed on it. Such a letter is usually a request for a statement, and in California leaving the scene of a collision is a crime whether or not anyone was hurt. Even if you believe you were the one who was hit, these letters use "involved in" for a person the department has not finished deciding about. One consultation tells you which side of the letter you are on — worth far more than a call that cannot be unmade.

There are two hit-and-run statutes in California, and which one is in play changes everything.

Cal. Veh. Code § 20001(a) applies when someone is hurt or killed. It requires a driver involved in an accident resulting in injury to another person, or in a death, to stop immediately at the scene. Under subdivision (b) the penalties run to a year in county jail and a fine of $1,000 to $10,000, and where the accident caused death or permanent, serious injury, two to four years in state prison or 90 days to a year in county jail.

Cal. Veh. Code § 20002(a) applies where the only result was property damage. It requires the driver to stop immediately at the nearest location that will not impede traffic. That is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

A defense attorney's first job is to work out which statute the department has in mind; a collision that looked like property damage at the scene becomes a § 20001 matter if someone later reports an injury.

Why not simply explain? Because an explanation is evidence in two cases at once — any criminal case, and any civil claim that follows. People give these statements believing cooperation will end the matter, and sometimes it does. But you cannot know which sentence fills a gap the investigator had, and you cannot take it back. A lawyer can contact the department for you, learn what it wants, and respond in a form that does not create that risk — not evasion, just the ordinary way this is handled.

If you were in fact the one who was struck, none of this costs you anything: your civil claim does not depend on answering the letter this week, and a lawyer reading it will tell you in one meeting whether you have anything to worry about. Note too that being the victim of a hit-and-run does not by itself settle who was at fault. Cal. Civ. Code § 1714(a) makes everyone responsible for an injury occasioned to another by their want of ordinary care, except so far as the injured person brought the injury upon themselves, and in Daly v. General Motors Corp., 20 Cal. 3d 725 (1978), the California Supreme Court reaffirmed that California apportions fault purely: a claimant's recovery is reduced in proportion to their own share, not eliminated.

What you can do

1. Take the letter, unanswered, to a local criminal-defense attorney. Bring the envelope too — the postmark and the date can matter.

2. Do not call the officer, email the department, or write back, including to say you did nothing wrong. Let the attorney make the contact.

3. Do not write out, type or record your account of the collision, and do not post about it. Do not delete anything already posted — preserving is safe, deleting is not.

4. Preserve what exists and change nothing: photographs, dashcam footage, texts, location history, and the vehicle itself — unrepaired and unwashed — until your attorney has seen them.

5. Ask the attorney before you notify your own insurer or answer any adjuster; a recorded statement to an insurer can end up in the criminal file.

6. Do not have a friend or relative call the department or ask questions for you. Those calls are traced back and treated as yours.

7. If you were injured or your car was damaged and you believe you were the one struck, ask a local personal-injury attorney about that claim separately — a different lawyer, question and deadline from the letter. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. An injury claim runs under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1, two years, and vehicle damage under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 338(c)(1), three; both ordinarily from the collision. If a public agency's vehicle or employee was involved, Cal. Gov't Code § 911.2(a) requires a claim to be presented to that entity within six months of accrual — much shorter than either. Criminal charging deadlines are separate again and belong to a defense attorney. Nothing here computes a date for you. Have a local attorney review your dates, and the letter, now.