EDIT: the court case will take place a week from now (not tomorrow), there is no "jury" involved, and I'm not seeking professional advice, just tips and assurances on the situation and how to handle it.

So I have a friend in the United States (Utah to be more precise) who had a car accident and will possibly face legal trouble. What happened is that while backing away from the parking, he bumped into a parked car. According to him, there was almost no damage to either car.

Rather than file the report to the police as needed by the law, a family member that was with him at the time persuaded him to just keep driving.

A couple hours later, the police called him to inform him of a court case taking place next week. The expected punishment for what he did is this, and honestly, I don't like it one bit. Is there anything he could do to lessen the punishment to a fine, at the very least?

Input from a U.S. lawyer would be much appreciated.

He betrayed the LAW!

Seriously though, I don't think this is the best place to seek legal advice. We specialise more in issues that can be solved using a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle.

Utah?

I thought you said the united states.
Utah is a suburb of Mars.

That doesn't sound good. I'd tell your friend to bring his companion to testify, but then the court might call it collusion with collision. Honestly I don't have any good advice other than to probably show up. A misdemeanor is a lot better than a felony. The fact that there is a jury involved leaves many questions unanswered. Is this a criminal court? Why need a jury for a misdemeanor? He hasn't even been arraigned, so again, why need a jury?

It's 2018, just claim whoever owned the opposite car was racist and sexually harassed you. People seem to win those without any evidence.

Why are you asking random idiots on an internet gaming forum for legal advice? The only advice you need is: do not ask random idiots on an internet gaming forum for legal advice. That's what lawyers are for.

God knows they're useless for anything else ^_^

Either you've horribly mangled the information your friend conveyed to you, or your friend has no idea what is actually going on and is injecting a lot of (incorrect) assumptions into what he told you. Court summons are delivered either by mail, or by an individual authorized by the court (can be a process server or a sheriff, specific rules vary by jurisdiction); court summons are not delivered verbally (this includes by phone). The legal system also does not move anywhere near fast enough for something to happen one day and a court summons to show up the next. There are also multiple steps with sufficient timelines provided for people to file a response with the court, all occurring long before anything would get to the point of a jury trial.

Basically everything you said is so far off any kind of norm I can't even begin to guess at what your friend is actually dealing with. If he's been contacted by the police or the court system asking him to appear then he should find and consult a local attorney to determine just what is actually going on.

Well he could do worse. He could ask Rudy Giuliani for advice. :D

I would get Mueller to investigate.

"Your Honor, I would like to request permission from the court to have Mike Ditka serve as my attorney."
"That's ridiculous. Denied."
<looks at Mike>
<Mike shrugs> "Da Bears!"

A few times trucks have damaged our car(s) and they just up and left without telling us.

As for a trial for a minor fender bender... stupid...

First of all... there is absolutely no way that within a couple of hours of a crime a trial with jury is ready to go for the next day. So there's some sort of miscommunication going on here.

Secondly, there's almost zero chance (not actually zero but almost zero) that your friend would face that punishment you linked to. If there was "almost no damage" done and your friend completely cooperated with the police upon investigating I would bet good money the only thing your friend would face would be the cost of repairing the other vehicle. Unfortunately in today's world of cars that might easily go over the $1,000 punishment but that's not technically punishment... it's just the way cars cost these days. If the damage is such that say something must replaced rather than fixed... it's so easy to get into big dollars just because of what car's cost.

In short... if your friend doesn't act like a jackass toward's the police... cooperates and explains that he or she thought there was no damage and that's why they left and voluntarily agrees to pay for any damages that were done... they almost certainly don't have to worry about legal troubles in terms of prison time and fines.

I am not a lawyer. And I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Why does this remind me of the 'family emergency' scam?

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0204-family-emergency-scams

As a few others have said it sounds fake. While I don't live in UT, that is not how it works in most states, nor to my knowledge, in UT.

Even assuming they had means to ID a license plate or driver (possible with store cams, but generally not something the police would be on in a few hours for a minor collision with no injuries) you would get a court summons for a future date. If it were a non-traffic charge it would come after review by the DA, not just the police tracking him down.

Scam, maybe. Prank more likely. I can't rule out the unlikely possibility there's something legit that you're just mis-relaying, but assuming you aren't pranking us he should seek legal counsel himself and not be relying on 2nd-hand advice through a friend asking on the internet.

Note that most states also have a $$ threshold under which notifying the police is not required for non-injury accidents, though perhaps he could still have some exposure for leaving the scene.