what up guys, to make a long story short, i was driving back home from school (im 17) with my girlfirend and sister (witnesses?), when i go under a bridge and go over a pretty ugly pothole, 5 seconds later my wheel starts turning to the right and the tmps sensor kicks in. At this point im like f$#@. I get out and to make things worst, i find out both of my month old pirelli winter tires ($170 each) on the passenger side are flat. I call mazda roadside assistance, they come pick my car up and take it to a local mazda dealer. They're gonna fix it tom, i guess im going to take them my original potenzas so they can install those and take the pirellis home. Well my question is, how hard is it to sue the city for the cost of the tires and the work that the mazda dealer is going to do on the car (i think my wheels were scratches as well). My parents dont speak very good english, but they have a very good lawyer. What should i do, any advice would be helpfull. By the way, this happened in chicago, il. Last friday, still daylight outside, and i was not driving fast.

Where do you live? And was it on an interstate or state highway or what? That will determine which level of government controls maintenance of the particular road. You'll have to check your state's laws to determine when sovereign immunity is invoked (sovereign immunity is a doctrine which states that you cannot sue the state without the state's permission; sometimes this applies to lower levels of government). Here in Georgia, for instance, maintenance of the roads, which would be classified as a 'custodial duty', is actionable. Different states have different laws/rules for waiver of their immunity. You'll have to check that on your own. Regardless, if you don't know what you're doing, I wouldn't take this on yourself. If you name the state as a defendant, this likely won't be a small-claims court thing.

Good luck,
Unless you could prove severe negligence on part of the city it would come under and act of God, natural freezes and thaws on a road suface. Suck it it up and pay and quit looking for a lawyer to solve all your problems.

How would a pothole be classified as an Act of God?

It's just another term for "Natural disaster" or beyond the control of a person type event... such as a pothole.. or a blizzard that freezes your car... or if a tree fell on your car, etc.. Those are pretty difficult to prove that it was the City's fault.

IF they had construction in that area, and they didn't post the "Beware" signs, then it would be the city's fault.

If I remember correctly, The City of Chicago has to be informed that the pot hole exists before it is at fault. The reasoning is if it dosn't know that the hole exists, it can't fix it. Now if it does know it exists and dosn't repair it then it would be negligent and liable for repairs. By the way, standard disclaimer follows. I am not a lawyer. Consult one for legal advice.
I think your S.O.L. Best thing to do would to make an insurance claim and eat the deductable.

i'm sorry but this is exactly what's wrong with america. everyone is so sue happy. things don't go right, i'm gonna sue you. what's that you say? i'm gonna sue you for libel. yadayadayada. like someone else said you just gotta suck it up and take it. what if you were driving and a tree fell on your hood. would you sue the city since the tree was planted there? :rolleyes:

How many other cars had this happen in that area? maybe your tires weren't inflated properly?

Forget a law suite, it's not worth your time or money. You are only talking $340 for tires. Don't know what other expense you may have incurred but it really isn't that bad. A couple things concern me.

1. Don't know where you live but be careful putting on other tires if they are not for the winter. You should know that by now.

2. You should be thankful that you and your passengers are fine and that you did not wreck your car. You must have handled it pretty well on the blow outs. Good job!

3. Don't turn it in on insurance. You have a deductible that it may not even meet. Besides you don't want to give your agency any reason to raise your rates for something so small.

Good luck and let us know what you do.

they were inflated, and this happened to my friend a week ago, the exact same pothole

If it's happened before and the city knows or should have known about it, then hypothetically you could consider the city the 'landowner' and you a 'licensee' in that you are able to use their 'land' for your own interest or convenience. In that case, the city has a duty to warn of known (or those which it should have reasonably known) dangers and would ordinarily be liable for any resulting harm. Of course, you have to take into account sovereign immunity and your own negligence.

If you file a claim for negligence, the fact that you knew about the hazard means you could be contributorily negligent (i.e., you knew of the hazard but negligently failed to avoid it anyway, you were speeding, etc.), in which case you would be barred from recovery. Under another theory, you could also be denied any relief if you had the 'last clear chance' to avoid the harm but failed to do so (i.e., you saw/knew the danger ahead but did not swerve out of the way if you saw it and had the 'last clear chance' to avoid it). I'm two days from the bar exam and am speaking from rote memory here, so take it for what it's worth as an analysis and not as legal advice.

Outlaw: Obviously, I am aware of what an Act of God is :) I just fail to see how a pothole can be classified as such, when a force of nature likely did not cause the pothole (and a street is a manmade structure anyway subject to human intervention).

markd is right. You admitted you knew about the potholes from a friend’s incident so you have no leg to stand on. You should have avoided it. Just drop it and start planning for your spring break.

Haven't you realized by now that there are going to be unexpected costs in the ownership of a car? Oh wait, you're only 17...

Wouldn't all the fees involved with suing end up costing just as much as the tires?

This is what small claims court is for. If your parents have a lawyer and you are driving an RX-8 at 17 then I don't think it would take much for your lawyer to draft a letter to the city Public Works Commissioner, and this will be taken care of. They will assume most people will just fix their cars rather than take the time and expense to find and retain legal counsel when nothing other than actual damages can be expected from taking this to court.

Yeah, maybe you should buy a pair of Michelin Tweels
http://www.gizmag.com/pictures/hero/3603_01.jpg

Since he's sueing the city for potholes, I'm sueing the state of California for all the cracks in the road because of their negligence in handling the Earthquake fractures. Also sueing the Pacific Ocean for the weather that has been dangerous to my car's paint... it's raining way too much, and my clear coat is getting wrecked. Then I am sueing the planet of Earth for not giving me cleaner oxygen and more gasoline so that I wouldn't have to pay so much. Then I am sueing God(s) for the fact that I wasn't born to be the heir apprent to the Microsoft fortune.... *boo hoo*

Yeah, maybe you should buy a pair of Michelin Tweels



Oh my God, those things are atrocious. I've never seen them before. I wonder how they keep their shape--you'd think it would flatten out towards the bottom as you're driving along.

If this happened in the Shitty of Chicago (oh, I mean City of Chicago, sorry), then they actually have a "pothole damage hotline" that you can call to get coverage. They give you a form to fill out, you attach two estimates and a photo of the pothole in question and the date it occurred and send it in. They pay 50%. Better than a kick in the head and at least it's a recourse. May want to just call your city and find out rather than all this legal posturing.

Also, please learn to use capital letters and carriage returns. You're not writing an IM. Why do most 17 year olds write such impossibly hard to read posts?

Stew

Don't think you need an attorney:

Bumpy roads driving you crazy? ABC7 wants to know where the potholes are! You can file a claim with the City of Chicago if your car has been damaged by a pothole on a Chicago road. To fill out a claim form visit www.chicityclerk.com. To submit a problem about a state road, visit dot.il.gov.

To contact ABC 7, send the location of the pothole in the form below or call (312) 750-POTS. Please include your name, email and phone so we can contact you.

Chicago will actually pay some of the repair? Damn......I'm impressed. Memphis won't pay a dime unless they knew about the pothole before you ran into/over it. Of course, proving that is impossible - how easy is it to change the date of a workorder for street repair?

Huh, guess we had all that discussion for nothing :D

Chicago does pay - it was a big surprise for me - I found out about this the hard way a few years ago - hit a pothole with my acura and knocked a piece out of the wheel, instantly deflating the tire - and this was at under 20 mph!

I had to call a tow, and since it was rush hour, I called the cops too for traffic control. The cop gave me the form to fill out - nicest guy, actually. I filled in the form, the cop shot a picture of the pothole with his polaroid, and got the estimates for the wheel ($290 from Acura parts at two different dealers) - the tire was savable actually - unbelieveably it didn't damage the tire - usually the sidewall gets pinched. Got a check for $165 - 50% coverage of the wheel plus a $20 "convenience allowance".

I was impressed! Ol' Richie D runs a good city!

In order to sue a municipality, state, or federal gov. you need to fall under an exception to their “tort claim act,” which essentially allows you around sovereign immunity (For those who don’t know sovereign immunity protects government from being sued). Not all but most of these statutes enumerate very specific times when you can sue, so it is important that you find an attorney familiar with this particular jurisdiction. Being unfamiliar with your local, and the exact circumstances I can’t tell you much more that this. If you are serious about pursuing this call a local attorney.

Huh, guess we had all that discussion for nothing :D

Nah, you got the chance to put your "training" to use!

And take it from someone who finished his a lonnnnnng time ago..It is not too late to be a cook! Or do anything besides pursue the miserable practice of law. My god son, somedays I just want to claw my eyes out in frustration.

Anyway, end of pep talk. Good luck! :rolleyes:

Also, please learn to use capital letters and carriage returns. You're not writing an IM. Why do most 17 year olds write such impossibly hard to read posts?

Stew

It's called high school English. Most kids nowadays don't pay attention in that class :confused: It's funny, I grew up being made fun of for being Asian and hence was stereotyped as "not knowing English" but was acing AP English while they flunked their regular classes. :rolleyes: Ugh. Anyway! Nooooo I'm not bitter! LOL

Yeah, not really sure what seems to be so hard for kids to grasp about the English language. I was never very good at grammar when we had tests on it in grade school, but I also never found it very hard to slap a halfway decent sentence together. Never took any APs in highschool, so I don't know how I was back then, but here in college I feel like some kind of prodigy the way I breeze through writing courses. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Sorry to hijack, but since it appears the pothole question has been answered (and you really don't want me to start ranting about how getting a city to pay for their negligence is like getting blood from a stone) I'd like to add my $.02 to high school kids' (mis)use of English. It's very simple, actually.

Kids who love to read, and who do it recreationally and often, know instinctively how to write well. Those who spend their spare time with their thumbs (no, not there!) on control buttons rather than with their noses in a book will write poorly enough to drive the rest of us nuts.

Parents, the best thing you can do to assure your kids success in school is instill a love of reading in them -- early!. Kids, if you're struggling to memorize all those !@#$%^& vocab words for the SAT, realize that if you'd been picking up books instead of game consoles you'd know 90% of those words already.

'tis true Aratinga. I never read fiction and have found I am lacking in the vocab department. Especially when it comes too fancy schmancy adjectives. I find myself reading a lot of science, math, business and history; I think it has given me a lopsided vocabulary. I couldn't write a captivating short story if tried.

what up guys, to make a long story short, i was driving back home from school (im 17) with my girlfirend and sister (witnesses?), when i go under a bridge and go over a pretty ugly pothole, 5 seconds later my wheel starts turning to the right and the tmps sensor kicks in. At this point im like f$#@. I get out and to make things worst, i find out both of my month old pirelli winter tires ($170 each) on the passenger side are flat. I call mazda roadside assistance, they come pick my car up and take it to a local mazda dealer. They're gonna fix it tom, i guess im going to take them my original potenzas so they can install those and take the pirellis home. Well my question is, how hard is it to sue the city for the cost of the tires and the work that the mazda dealer is going to do on the car (i think my wheels were scratches as well). My parents dont speak very good english, but they have a very good lawyer. What should i do, any advice would be helpfull. By the way, this happened in chicago, il. Last friday, still daylight outside, and i was not driving fast.
Not very hard. It happens all th time. The defense is ''my tax dollars go towards road repair, etc. and I feel the city should fix my tire''. Well some of that is bullsh!t but the city usually takes it if it is within reason. I don't know about where you live but I would write a letter (not being a d!ck about it) and explain what happened and what action you would like to take. You could be surprised

Nah, you got the chance to put your "training" to use!

And take it from someone who finished his a lonnnnnng time ago..It is not too late to be a cook! Or do anything besides pursue the miserable practice of law. My god son, somedays I just want to claw my eyes out in frustration.

Anyway, end of pep talk. Good luck! :rolleyes:

Klegg: Good to know another law school victim! I just finished day one of the bar exam and, like you said, I'm ready to claw something out, whether it be my eyes or my brain. One more day to go. I actually graduated from law school in '03 but took some time off (I was actually a legal recruiter for 6 months, so if I called you and bugged you, sorry!) and still don't know if I want to practice. I'm going to go to LA for a few months and become a starving actor (sort of the equivalent of your idea to be a cook:)) and then who knows what. Not a bad position to be in--If all else fails, I can always be an attorney (or probably the only starving actor who drives an 8)!

Klegg: Good to know another law school victim! I just finished day one of the bar exam and, like you said, I'm ready to claw something out, whether it be my eyes or my brain. One more day to go. I actually graduated from law school in '03 but took some time off (I was actually a legal recruiter for 6 months, so if I called you and bugged you, sorry!) and still don't know if I want to practice. I'm going to go to LA for a few months and become a starving actor (sort of the equivalent of your idea to be a cook:)) and then who knows what. Not a bad position to be in--If all else fails, I can always be an attorney (or probably the only starving actor who drives an 8)!

Ahhhh, old nasty mental trauma! I took NJ and PA, over a three day period.
I still get panic attacks thinking about it...hard test, thats for sure. You might want to think about FBI or SS...they love the JD, and there is something to be said about 20 years in, and out with full benny's. My cousin works for the SS in PA, it is a cake job. If only I could go back in time. (age cutoff is 37)

I don't know what it is like out in CA, but NJ just sucks anymore. Really, I am thinking of just limiting myself to Real estate, wc and traffic. Less money, but no stress.

Remember, for us, it is like dog years...1 year in the real world is like 7 on a lawyer's body. :)

well i think this .....first of all you have to pay attention to the road .... everyone knows that these cars are extremely low to the ground...that is why you have to look at the road ie your lane of travel every min....for example you cant straddle obsticles....( nor can i spell )....i mean none of them ...i was going down the road just the other day and noticed a red spot on the highway..probobly where a deer was hit ....i thought ok just blood ...when i cross it ....i heard a hellish thump under the car ....thought maybe the deer came back to life and said ....hey that was a mazda rx 8.......LOL .....just kiddin ......I FEEL YOUR PAIN