I'm going to court this Wednesday for a small claims case. I'm suing the gal who totaled my PARKED truck. She was cited and fined in court a couple months after the crash for being uninsured. In the meantime, my insurer paid the loss from my policy's collision coverage.
I had a $500 deductible, and the loss was over $11K. It's been almost a year, and the insurer sent me a letter saying their lawyers haven't been able to recover a penny. I have 2 years from the accident to file in small claims for my deductible.
The good news is, she eventually went to the post office and signed for the notice to appear I mailer her. That means I have evidence she was served, and the judge has the option to issue a judgement without her presence. At least I won't be wasting a morning showing up just to request a continuance!
Best advice I can give anyone is to call the Cops ESPECIALLY if the other person says not to!! If they offer to take care of it without going through insurance, tell them that's fine (if you want to), but still call the police. Without a report, the other person can change their story and there's nothing other than your word to dispute it unless you have a witness. Even if you call the Cops, you aren't required to call your insurance companies.
I've seen this happen twice. At the scene, they are all like "trust me!" The next day it's all, "I didn't hit you! YOU hit ME!"
I had one lady hit my truck's front bumper. She was making a right on red turn while I had the left-turn green arrow. I hit the horn, hit the left hand median to avoid her, but she didn't even slow down! The next day, the husband swore to his insurance agent it was part my fault because I turned into the far lane instead of the left lane of the street I turned onto. He might have had a chance to only pay 50% of my damages, but the agent took pictures of the intersection and proved he lied (there are no lane markings, so it's only one lane). At the scene, there was never a dispute that she turned on a red signal. That's what the police report is good for! Without the on-the-spot admission, they could have lied and said I was trying to run a red signal to make my left!

When money is involved, people can really turn into lowlife lying jerks!!