Minor fender-bender, am I obligated to file a police report?

[nsdjoe]

Last night I fairly lightly bumped someone backing up in my roommate's SUV (couldn't see her). This crazy lady gets out, calls her husband and starts screaming polish into the phone. There's negligible damage to the car I was driving, and the very front part of the lady's hood is bent slightly. Very minor damage.

I call 911 and tell them what happened, and give my information to the Polish lady. I think I conveyed to her husband over the phone that they should just get an estimate of the damage and I'd pay for it.

A little while later a cop comes. She goes to the polish lady and actually is a total bitch to her, even though I mention I was at fault. The cop gets the lady's driver's license and insurance card and has me write down all the pertinent information, then tells me I can go file a police report if i want to. She says the lady can do the same if she wants to. Then the cop just leaves. I take pictures of her and my car with my camera phone and we both leave.

What's my play here? On the one hand, it seems nice that there might not be any official record of the incident if the Polish couple try to hamstring me. On the other hand, some people are telling me it would be better to have my side of the story on record in case they try to sue me, saying she's injured now or whatever. It's interesting to point out that I heard the polish lady tell her husband several times what kind of car I was driving... not sure why this would be relevant other than to try to figure out how much money I have.


Any ideas?

[Cornell Fiji]

If the cop told you that you don't have to file one then you definitely don't want to do so.

I am almost positive that all car accidents are automatically forwarded on to your insurance company and even though this is minor you don't want your rates to go up.