Location: California (incident)
I live in Colorado.
Last week we were on a vacation in California. We were unfamiliar with local highways. We were on a freeway that suddenly ended, turned into 1 lane, and had a stoplight within 1/4 mile that backed traffic up past the signs notifying that the freeway was ending.
My wife was slow in realizing traffic had stopped and couldn't brake to a stop before hitting the car in front of her doing about 10-15 mph.
The person we hit indicated they were not injured. We called police and were advised to exchange insurance and that they did not need to investigate a non injury accident. We waited with the other party until family members showed up and she felt safe to drive her car off.
Our insurance called us a few days later and informed us that the other party had retained a lawyer and is representing they received significant injuries that they will be presenting a demand for.
The other party's lawyers have been leaving me messages asking me to contact them. It would be a really bad idea for me to say anything to them, right?