location: Illinois
I was involved in car accident where I rear ended the driver in stop and go traffic. we pulled over to the side. I noticed right away she had a very thick Spanish accent, but she kind of spoke broken English, so we just commutate single worded sentences really, enough to at least exchange information (I have insurance). neither of us called the police or at least I thought so at the time. once that was done, I left and carried on my day.
a couple days later my mom said that the police came and that I was involved in a hit run. apparently, the other driver had called the police after I left. my mom told the police that I stop and exchanged info, the police acknowledged that they understood that there may have been a commutation problem as well, they must have noticed the accent as well. The police only came by twice, during the time I had work which they known, my mom told them I was at work during those times).
weeks later I got a letter in the mail saying that I have court hearing for my hit and run charge in traffic court.
The problem is that I never ran, I pulled over an exchange information.
my question is am I facing genuinely legal charges where I can be found guilty. or is this something I just explain to the judge, I know some people who are police officers and they said that letter is just procedure.
the only evidence I have of me pulling over and not running is:
1.) I called my mom about the accident as I was meeting her somewhere and she had to wait for me
2.) the first piece of contact we exchange was phone numbers. when I gave her mine, she called my phone to make sure it was correct, so I have my call logs to show that and a time stamp.
3.) my mom uses life360 for my family so my location shows me pulling over and staying in the location where the accident occurred. life360 logs each drive
4.) my motive. her car only suffered paint damage and my entire front headlight got busted and my bumper was hanging. so, I needed to submit a claim so I can get my car fixed since I have full coverage. i submitted a claim and got my car fixed. I had no motive to run as I needed my car to be fixed.
extra info. the street where the accident is known to be busy street, it can be very hard to hear as the accident happen during traffic and nearby construction.
the police said they took over 40mins to get there due to traffic (don't know how this helps me, but they told my mom this)
I'm over 18