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My stolen bike was found totaled and the guy is in hospital. Need Advice for court!

3K views 26 replies 15 participants last post by  01wj 
#1 ·
So here's a juicy story for you guys. The love of my life was stolen at a parking lot. About a month and a half later, the police found it in another state, totaled...and the guy who stole it is in the hospital AND in custody. I was talking to the detective in both my state and the state the guy and the bike was found in but I'm not sure where to start the case to sue his a**. In fact, I don't even know where to start when it comes to court cases and suing him and starting a case so anyone can give me some good advice on how to take this into my own hands (as in I don't want to spend money on a lawyer)

P.S.- All I had was liability on my bike. As in, I couldn't get anything back from insurance.
 

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#2 ·
While I feel for you the honest answer is just recover what you can from the bike. Suing a criminal in a civil case is about as useful as lips on a chicken. He isn't going to be able to pay while in jail... he also isn't going to have a steady income, post felony, that can be garnished.
 
#5 ·
Was it for sure the guy who stole it? Thats insane man, pics of the damage?
 
#9 ·
The courts protect the criminals more than they offer you any ways to right yourself.

The real bottomline is you cannot get blood from a turnip. You didn't cover your ass by having full insurance and any lowlife that would steal your bike or buy a stolen bike is NOT going to be in any position to reimburse you for ANYTHING not give a shit about you in general. In fact if you antagonize such people it could cost you even more in the future if they do happen to take an interest in you and want retribution for your actions against them.

It's pathetic and sad, but it is true in this day & age.
 
#11 ·
Wow, what a mess. You're going to be "throwing good money after bad" trying to sue this guy. You'll need a lawyer for court actions, and if (IF) you win that doesn't mean you'll get anything. It takes another court action to garish his wages, if he has any. You could probably go talk to a lawyer to see what your options are. Most lawyers don't charge for the first visit.
If I were you, I'd chalk it up to experience, get the bike back and either rebuild it or part it out.
 
#12 ·
dude!!!???!!!? you can get liability with theft coverage!!!! the theft coverage is like a $5 dollar a month add on. ALWAYS HAVE THEFT COVERAGE ON A MOTORCYCLE. learned that lesson after my first on was stolen. had three stolen from me in total in the past 15yrs, the two covered by insurance was lengthy but totally worth have the theft coverage add on to my liability insurance on the bikes. they paid out in full and i was actually able to buy a better more expensive bike both times with the payout the insurance gave me
 
#13 ·
Not through progressive, its part of comprehensive. You can't buy it separate at least not on my policy.
 
#14 ·
i have progressive for my motorcycle insurance and i have liability with the theft coverage add on. $55 a month. you have to specifically request it when setting up your policy. if you dont have it, i would highly recommend you call them to add it to your policy. they have covered two stolen bikes for me and both times i only had the liability with theft add-on.
 
#15 ·
Wow, I have full coverage through progressive, I'm paying $550 a year.
 
#22 ·
i need to double check my coverage then to see what all i have through them. i'm 31 and have had ZERO claims in the past 7+ years. i dont bundle my motorcycle insurance with anything else though bc my car and house insurance are phenomenal with another insurance company. thanks for the heads up, ill be looking into that. are you bundling with home and auto, just so i can get an idea of your coverage compared to mine
 
#16 ·
I just checked with my State Farm agent. Although they do not have liability plus theft they said I could have theft covered if I included comprehensive. Total cost, with a $250 ded., would be around $425/yr.

I told them that with the cold weather approaching, it would probably be going down to my basement in storage until next April in the next few weeks anyway.
 
#18 ·
If he was the one who bought the bike and not stole it, then he might have money to go after, the courts will make him pay for the bike without you having to do to much because he wrecked it. even if it takes him 5 years, it would be worth it. whoever contacted you when they found your bike, just call them back and ask what happens next, they will point you in the right direction. Hopefully he will rat on the guy he bought the bike from and not serve any time so he can pay you back and they can go after the person who stole it. you are in the right and need to protect your rights. and criminals need to pay for their crimes even if it takes them 10 to 15 years...
 
#19 ·
i'm sure there are some ambulance chasers out there who would at least look into it and do a credit check on the guy to see if it is worth going after and they would just take a cut instead of you paying them upfront. Taking stolen stuff across state lines becomes federal and the value of it.
 
#21 ·
You don't say what states this happened in. You can get a judgement in small claims without a lawyer (10k in CA). There are numerous questions that aren't answered in your posting. The crux is, can you sue the person who received stolen property for your damages? Don't listen to these idiots telling you to sue for pain and suffering. It's not going to happen. If you do this, just concentrate on replacement costs. Cost of renting a car to get to and from work. THat sort of thing. Courts are only concerned with ACTUAL damages. While you most likely did suffer emotional distress, it's harder to prove and quantitatively denominate with a dollar figure. Moving on...With property like say a television, if the buyer goes on CL and finds someone selling a television and he pays about what it would cost generally for a used television, chances are you're not going to be able to assert that he knowingly received stolen property. If he bought a 30 inch plasma LED out of the back of a truck for $100, then chances are very good that he could get charged with receiving stolen property, should someone care to prosecute it. However, with something like a vehicle which has a title, and needs to be registered, whether he stole it or argues that he bought it off a third party, most likely won't matter since he has a responsibility to register the bike, which he obviously didn't and could not do. So he knowingly received stolen property and that would negate his argument that he didn't know it was stolen thus making him liable. I would think. Are you following what I'm saying so far? Now the question is, where do you sue him? My guess (and this is a pure guess) is that it would have to be the state in which he resides. With contracts, it's wherever the contract was entered into, typically. With this I can't be sure. Either way find out which jurisdiction to sue him in, you're gonna have to do some research since I'm assuming he doesn't reside in the state you're in. Once you do that, the small claims paperwork is pretty simple and self explanatory. Once you get a judgement, and once he's out of jail (assuming they even bother because in CA courts the system is overwhelmed so I doubt they would incarcerate him for a non-violent crime) he will have to pay you. If he doesn't, do an asset inquiry and attach those. If he has no assets, attach his wages. The judgement is good for 10 years and I believe you can renew it after that. Talk to the detective, find out where he's being prosecuted (I assume he is). Talk to the prosecuting attorney and find out if they are scheduling a restitution hearing. They may just award you the money during that hearing. To start doing some legal research to answer some of the prior questions, go here. http://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/CACourts/ Again, I don't know what state you're in. Good luck.
 
#23 ·
I just have motorcycle, I've been with them 3 years, they are by far the best priced, for me. Price has gone down over time, each year it's about 15%less.
 
#24 ·
For what it's worth, I wouldn't even bother trying to sue him. Unless he has some serious assets (as in this dude better have a bank roll) you'll probably end up feeding the lawyer, and getting nothing. Speaking from experience in a matter far worse. It sucks, but take the loss and move on. Your mind will be in a better state, than it will if you try to drag through the criminal...oh I mean court system.
 
#26 ·
Honestly dude hate to say this but I think you are kind of shafted. If you only had liability, you would have to go after the guy that stole it for compensation so you would have to sue him like others said. The only issue is, if he stole your bike, I would venture to say there's probably a greater probability than not that he doesn't have any money, so even if you sue him and win well first off he's going to be in jail, so it's probably going to be pretty hard to actually collect from him, and people of that type don't seem to really care about things such as their "credit report".

Either way, I wish you the best of luck recovering your losses.
 
#27 ·
Actually thinking about it, you may be best off trying to get the bike back from the Police and maybe then parting it out to negate your losses as much as possible. Realistically, I'm going to guess that you are still going to come out behind, but hopefully it will at least numb the pain a little bit.

On another note, it's a huge pain in the ass to part these things out also. Maybe sell it to a salvage yard? I guess it really depends on how much your time is worth and how much the loss is going to hurt you.
 
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