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small claims case in 2 weeks, help please

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Old Jul 5th, 2008, 11:00 PM     #1
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Default small claims case in 2 weeks, help please

My question involves a traffic accident in the State of: California.

Here is what happened. I'm heading westbound, and am in a left turn lane dedicated to entering a driveway of a gas station. It's just beyond an intersection. I'm waiting in the lane for the intersection light to turn red, so the eastbound traffic can yield to me. Eventually, this happens. Cars in both lanes 1 and 2 yield to me, leaving a space open so that I can complete my turn arc in front of them. I proceed slowly, and I see no oncoming traffic that may have swerved to the right of the #2 lane to pass the stopped traffic. When I confirm there is no oncoming traffic, I finish my turn arc, and stop briefly at the lip of the gas station driveway, as I was examining the gas station islands to see which one I should approach. At that moment, I'm hit on my right side.

Turns out a car that had been in the #2 lane was going to make a right turn at the intersection, so he decides to pull to the right of the traffic in the number 2 lane (at that point, just one car, the one that had yielded to me) so as to pass all the stopped traffic and get to the intersection quicker. Problem was, my car was there preparing to enter the driveway.

Police come out, and the police report states the other guy is 100% at fault for violating a CVC for driving in the bicycle lane. My insurance company finds him 100% at fault, and his insurance company finds him 50% at fault, deciding to find me 50% as well for failing to yield (CVC21801(a).)

I have a small claims court date in 2 weeks. I say the insurance company is wrong because I did yield to all oncoming traffic and proceeded when it was reasonably safe. When I proceeded past the yielded car in lane #2, there was no car to the right of traffic, and I can prove it. With no cars coming at me, I'd say that is a reasonably safe time to proceed.

I feel I can prove that he swerved to the right of traffic after I proceeded to complete my turn arc. Even if it was simultaneous (me emerging from in front of the yielded car in lane 2, and he swerving over to the right of the yielded car in lane 2), I still did check for oncoming traffic and there wasn't any at that given time. A reasonable person can say that he/she couldn't expect a driver to swerve onto the shoulder of a lane at the last moment. And even if they did, a reasonable person has no way of determining that the driver intending on passing on the right will actually perform that action. I felt all I could do was to assume this guy was going to do what 99% of the people do when they approach a stopped car; stop behind the car.

I would appreciate any assessments of this case. I need to win this thing. What do you guys think? Any holes I should know about?

Thanks
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