A little over a week ago I brushed up against a woman's car a few blocks from my house in Baltimore. She was parked in the middle of the street (no attempt to get out of the lane of traffic) waiting for a parking spot. I was trying to make a green light about 500 feet in front of here so I tried to squeeze between her and the parked cars on my left. Unfortunately I swapped a little paint with her, I pulled over and apologized and said it was a momentary lapse in judgement. I looked at her car and the only damage was cosmetic, just a little bit of a scuff on her rear quarter panel, she had an older (2004ish) honda CRV which has big plastic sections which helped to keep damage to a minimum. I told her I would like to pay out of pocket for anything because I didn't want my rates to go up. She even said "I think I can get my boyfriend to buff it out," She wrote down my license plate, name, phone number and address.
I get a call from her a few days later saying she got a quote "from a friend of a friend" that owns a shop and it would be $950. I told her that seemed a bit high considering someone rear-ended me last year, took off my entire bumper and the repair was only 500. She said she thought it was high as well and would take it to get another shop for another estimate. She left me a message last night saying she got another quote for $820, which I'm still having trouble grasping. I haven't called her back yet because I'm not sure what to do. I have a feeling she told both shops she took it to that "the guy that hit me is going to pay for it" so they immediately jacked up the cost 200% thinking I'll just pay it. A friend of mine that is a lawyer told me to completely ignore her and to not even give her a penny or answer her phone calls because then I would be admitting guilt and she could come back 3 months later and sue me for her neck hurting or something. Morally, I want to do something because I do admit I was wrong but I also don't want to get scammed out of 800 bucks. I was thinking it would be more along the lines of 2-300 max.
Thoughts?
I get a call from her a few days later saying she got a quote "from a friend of a friend" that owns a shop and it would be $950. I told her that seemed a bit high considering someone rear-ended me last year, took off my entire bumper and the repair was only 500. She said she thought it was high as well and would take it to get another shop for another estimate. She left me a message last night saying she got another quote for $820, which I'm still having trouble grasping. I haven't called her back yet because I'm not sure what to do. I have a feeling she told both shops she took it to that "the guy that hit me is going to pay for it" so they immediately jacked up the cost 200% thinking I'll just pay it. A friend of mine that is a lawyer told me to completely ignore her and to not even give her a penny or answer her phone calls because then I would be admitting guilt and she could come back 3 months later and sue me for her neck hurting or something. Morally, I want to do something because I do admit I was wrong but I also don't want to get scammed out of 800 bucks. I was thinking it would be more along the lines of 2-300 max.
Thoughts?