Can You Beat a Prosecution for Damaging a Hong Kong Car Park?
By HK Lawyer AJ Halkes Barrister-at-Law
If it happens, what is your next move? Where is the rabbit?
No lawyer gets points for giving away trade secrets. Like magicians, they get paid for rabbits pulled out of hats, preferably with a bit of flair. To the paying client, it often looks like magic. That’s the job.
So there is no free legal advice here. Not a bit of it.
Every case depends on its facts, and I do not know them. But Hong Kong car parks are often old and narrow, some are very poorly lit or badly designed, and drivers keep crashing into bits of them. Damage happens.
If you damage a car park through carelessness, you should reasonably pay to repair it. That is simple, as it is your “fault”. But what if, instead of a reasonable civil repair claim from the car park operator, you are criminally prosecuted?
This happens more often than people realise, as some car park operators may even escalate a bit of wall damage to the police. Then, sometimes, not always, a careless driving prosecution follows. That carries penalty points, and that’s not what anyone wants.
So, the most cost-effective and sensible path? Settle the damage claim quickly. Compensate the car park reasonably. Move on.
But what about careless driving, which basically involves a person driving without due care and attention for other road users? Not the exact definition, but it will do for now.
Say someone is reversing into a parking bay. No pedestrians are nearby. No other vehicles are in sight. The driver gently bumps into the wall. Who exactly is the “other road user” they have failed to consider?
If there were none, one might argue that a prosecution cannot succeed. That there is no careless driving involved without someone else on the road to whom the driver owed attention and failed to give it.
That’s not stopped these prosecutions from being mounted, not because the driving was especially bad, or because another road user was anywhere near, but perhaps because car park damage was not properly compensated for.
This seems like a simple claim for the reasonable cost of repairs. Unless, of course, the car park itself was so poorly designed or unsuitable for use that the design itself contributed to the damage; which it sometimes looks like, given the level of damage we see all around the city!
If you need specific input regarding a strategic Hong Kong challenge or related legal matters in the HKSAR you can always DM me and check out my profile at https://www.ajhalkes.com
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