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I am a personal injury lawyer (for 30 years) licensed in both Tennessee and Texas. I don't know what state you live in so it is hard for me to give you any advice. But what may have happened is that the policeman decided that both the truck driver and your son were at fault and both were at fault in causing the accident. This is a very typical thing for the police to do where both vehicles are moving.
It could be that if you went to trial the jury would find that both the truck driver and your son were at fault, but I think the jury would find the truck driver more at fault than your son. Depending on the state, you might have to pay for some of your damage. The way it works in the two states where I am licensed is that the party who is most at fault pays for all of his damage to his vehicle and then pays more than half of the damage to the other party. The party least at fault pays only his portion of the damage to his vehicle.
Example. Suppose the jury decides that your son was 25% at fault in causing the accident and your car was worth $5000. The truck driver, or his insurance company, would have to pay for all of the damage to his vehicle and for 75% of the damage to yours -- or $3,750.
That is the way it works in the two states where I practice. This type of law is called comparative fault law, where the jury gets to "compare" the fault of both drivers and assess a percentage to each. Comparative fault is the law in most jurisdictions. You need to find out if that is the kind of law you have in your jurisdiction and if so, you need to think seriously about how much fault a jury would place on your son. I think you would win, but a jury might decide to place 10-25% of the fault on your son so you would not be entitled to the full value of your car.
One other thing, if your car is a total loss, the truck driver and his insurance company are only responsible for paying his percentage of the total loss value of your car. Sometimes it is a close call as to whether a vehicle is a total loss. If it is not a total loss, then the truck driver's insurance company will pay to repair the truck driver's percentage of the repairs.
Hope this outline helps.
posted by 75.66.23...
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