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take a payoff?

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:50:33 -0800

I got hit by a car while I was cycling, and reported it to the police. Now the other party is offering to "settle it personally", leaving insurance companies and police out. Is this legal, and is it advisable? Here are the details:
I was hit by a car that was cutting across my lane to turn left. I was not badly injured, but had quite a number of big bruises and lots of soreness. My bike was slightly scratched up and the chain got knocked off and tangled in the gears.

At the scene the guy who hit me gave me his first name and phone number. I took out my mobile and snapped some photos of him, and his number plate. We parted ways without anything else, but I told him that I was going to report the accident. The reason I decided to report the accident was because
- it doesn't seem fair that just because I'm on a bike, he gets to drive away without bringing insurance/police into it the way one normally would with a collision with a car
- I feel he should get points on his license or whatever happens to people who cause accidents - it was a really stupid, unsafe maneuver he pulled, and it was only sheer luck that I wasn't really badly injured or worse.
- I thought I might get some small amount of money to get some general repairs on my bike.

Now, after I filed the report (which is simply a collision report), the wife of the man who hit me has phoned to ask if we can "settle it ourselves". I'm not too sure what they have in mind, but I assume it's some amount of money.

I have to admit I'm tempted to go for it, but I'm not sure. First, is this legal? And if I were to take them up, how would I go about canceling a police report - is that even possible?
Finally, how much do they have to gain by avoiding a police report, and by extension how much bargaining power would that give me? I wouldn't be tempted to let him "get away with is" legally for £50, but £500 on the other hand..

Are all mugshots in the public domain?

thewittyname — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 18:46:15 -0800

Does everyone who gets arrested have a mugshot taken of them, and must all mugshots be released to the public? Are there any restrictions on their use? It seems to be "common knowledge" that mugshots are public records (that's what Wikipedia says) but can anyone give me some more detail on the laws that might govern this sort of thing? Are there restrictions on obtaining or using mugshots that don't apply to police reports, or vice versa?

[Yes, this is partially related to DeLay's pending arrest, but I've wondered about the specifics behind this stuff for a while now]

NYC Police Reports

darkpony — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 17:14:51 -0800

Does anyone know of any online resoucres for up to the minute new york city police reports? [more inside too] specifically, I was riding the V train home this evening and there was a 'police incident' at the 23rd/Ely stop so trains weren't stopping at that station. Since this is by my home I had to get off at the next station and walk back, where I came upon tons of cops and cop cars, firetrucks and other 'official' looking vehicles. Of course no one would tell me what was going on and now( about two hours later) they just all have gone away.