Legal Question for you Law Experts

[PonyOne]

OK, last night i was crossing the street when this guy barreled around the corner and almost nailed me and my girlfriend. I shoved my girlfriend away and almost got hit, but managed to use my right leg to push off from the front quarter panel of his car and NOT get nailed.
Only after my foot connected with his car did he stop. My girlfriend and I went around the corner to call the cops, and he ran up behind me, shoved me, then grabbed me by the breast of my trench coat and started shaking me, telling me that he was an attorney, his brother was a cop, and that he'd kill me for kicking his car.
I'm a brown belt in tae kwan do and know how to kill someone easily. That's why, rather than hit him, i backed off and tried to calm him down. He kept screaming that he was going to kick my ass, sue me blind and etc., then grabbed my arm and told me that he was going to show me the damage to his car. I told him that i was going to call a cop, and dashed inside the bar by where this had happened.
He chased me inside, yelling that i'd better come outside, he wanted my name and number, etc. I told him he could have it provided that i called the police first, that i wasn't going to accidentally incriminat myself in front of him. I walked over to my girlfriend and she was giving me a pen and paper, when he starts demanding my i.d.
I informed him that i don't have an i.d. (i don't), and that i was underage. this is where i got tricky myself, as i am underage being under 21, but not a minor. However, i didn't say that i was a minor. It scared the crap out of him and, after trying to pass off a black scuff on his car as my doing (i was wearing Doc Martens, which are skidproof and have a transparent brown sole), he finally just left.
Now, I know where this guy lives; he's parked about two doors down from me. Could I take him to court, as he not only almost hit me, but also chased me down, assaulted me while i was retreating, threatened to kill me as well as used his position as an attorney and his brother's as a cop to try and get me to cave in? Or does the fact that my foot connected with his car and that i left the scene to find a phone make it my fault?

as a side, there is no jaywalking clause where i live, so you can cross regardless of the light. any legal experts care to help?

[Christoph]

First of all, congratulations on being the knight in shining armor and saving your girlfriend from bodily harm.

I don't know where you're from, but in the US, private citizens can sue each other for whatever they want in civil court. You can sue someone if you don't like their face . . . so you could sue this guy if you wanted to. The question is whether or not you'd be able to win and get anything. In this case, it would probably end up being a total waste of your time, since, number one, you or your girlfriend didn't suffer any bodily harm, and number two, no one else witnessed the incident. You might be able to file some sort of a complaint with your local PD, but feasibly, that's about it.

[Hootayah]

Just drop it and save yourself the aggravation. (then wait for halloween night and throw 10 dozen eggs at his house and cover his car in dog crap)

[educatedfilm]

I agree with christoph... and oh hootayah that's not a clever idea!! He really can sue for doing that...
Yeah, just get on with you're life... Court's a reall stress... I've never been involved i admit, but seeing the state of freind who took a computer company to court cos they put up the price of his order without informing him...
You could do what i do to threaten, which is whenever you go past his house slow right down, but dont stop, and give a good stare into his front room or front window... heheh... 3 weeks of this and you'll be laughing...
<sigh> there's always the sinsible aproach which is to go talk to the guy, apologies first and he'll feel imbarrased and apologise back (in theory), and you can put it behind you...

[Bardsley]

Ok, I was having a discussion with my father (a laywer in Australia) about this issue of litigation, so it's interesting tha tit has come up. Both of us see that a big problem in the law, especially in the American legal system, is the way that litigation is so often seen as a good thing to do. First off, yes, you probably have the right to sue him, but does that mean that it is a good idea? My father often speaks of law firms tht go around the community informing people of their rights to litigate under any circumstance, however, they do not say of how horrible the process is. Court cases are extremely expensive and harrowing things to go through. Even if you win (which is by no means a given) you face a very stressful period in which your legal bills wouldn't even be covered by how much you could sue him for. He's a lawyer, so it's not costing him as much, though I doubt he was being serious about taking you to court, because he would know just how much a hassle it would be. Basically, unless he beat the crap out of you (in which case he would be criminally charged), why would you bother? What have you got to gain, because you would have a lot to lose by taking legal action. Many lawyers try to hide just how bad the litigation process is for people, in an attempt to create clients. My father is often criticised by others because he most often discourages people from taking litigation. The only people who win are the lawyers.

[Raskolnikov]

Just let it go.

As was stated: Nobody really came to any harm, and there were no witnesses. To top it off, if you did win anything, you wouldn't get anything in the long run.

I think you were smart to stand your ground. Always get names and numbers, and demanding a cop was a good idea too. Usually if someone starts raving about being a lawyer, they're full of wind, and cops generally hate lawyers (trust me on this one).

As a side note: How long till your black belt reccomended testing? When you were talking about being shoved and the wrist grabbing, a lot of classes came back to mind.

[PonyOne]

I haven't had the money to take courses in the past year, so it'll be awhile. I still practice everything i remember, and do my best to keep in shape.

i actually do have two witnesses; a bartender and a bar patron who was in the room that night, both of whom saw him attack me and heard him say "get back out here or i'll kick you ass" and will go to court w/that.

more than money, i just want the jerk off the road before he gets himself or someone else killed. plus, would you want this guy in the legal system? i checked up on laws; if he is a lawyer (probably not though) then he could be disbarred for his conduct i.e. threatening to kill me and using his status in the same sentence.

[Hootayah]

It's not worth the aggravation. You're case probably won't come up for close to a year... then he could delay it by even more. Every time you go to court you have to take a day off work and sit around all day waiting for your turn.
Take it from someone who's been through it.
That aggravation plus the constant anxiety of dredging the incident up time again isn't worth it. Especially if he counter sues and you lose & get stuck with court costs too.

[chris mood]

This guy sounds like a real jerk, tell him you fractured your leg when you pushed off his car to avoid being run over. Tell this jerk you got medical bills, lost wages, and get yourself a new pair of dockers while your at it. This guy sounds like a high strung scum***, chances are the whole process will be more stressful for him. At least file a police report on this guy, so that if he pulls this on someone else you can testify as a character witness on there behalf.

[PonyOne]

I filed a report, I don't think I'm going to do anything legal.

Rather, maybe I'll wait until he's walking down a street alone @ night, and then beat the living bejesus out of him and take his wallet (and ability to eat solid foods for two months).

Or put an M80 up the tailpipe of his car.

Just kidding. Eventually, he'll get his, I'm a good martial artist and know that I could have killed him, quite nastily, if I put some effort into it, but I took martial arts in the first place so that I could control myself.
Eventually he'll torque off some guy and that guy will pull out a gun or knife or wrench and it'll be curtains. So I'll let him enjoy it while he can.

Oh and he's ugly, too.