answer:I’m not a lawyer, but this was what I was able to find. Here’s the California statute regarding this, what you were obliged to do by law, when you hit the other car. The maximum fines and penalties are mentioned at the end of the statute. What you’re supposed to do, if you can’t locate the owner of the vehicle, is: Leave in a conspicuous place on the vehicle or other property damaged a written notice giving the name and address of the driver and of the owner of the vehicle involved and a statement of the circumstances thereof and shall without unnecessary delay notify the police department of the city wherein the collision occurred or, if the collision occurred in unincorporated territory, the local headquarters of the Department of the California Highway Patrol. I’m assuming you failed to do one or both of these things and there was a witness who wrote down your license plate number. Hit and run isn’t a good thing, of course, but this seems to be about as minor as a hit and run generally gets; no moving violations, no one killed or injured, etc. And I’m sure that the fact that you’ve already had your insurance company pay for the repairs to the other car is going to help you too. I don’t think you’ll go to jail to jail either, but it does appear to be a misdemeanor charge. You’ll probably just pay a fine. Unless you end up getting an attorney who can work out a better deal. I found some information on what the procedure is for getting a court appointed attorney in California is in cases like this. Good luck.