[Zeke]

Since you don't have collision ins on the car your ins co will not pursue this on your behalf. Uninsured motorist coverage is mandatory in CA but does not cover under the circumstances.

What I would do is file in SCC with well documented paperwork especially the value of the car. Her insurance (if she was indeed insured in her state) must represent her if they are notified.

If she refuses to notify her insurance and does not appear, you win by default, but only what the established loss is plus actual court costs (nothing for your time). At that point I'd sell it to a bill collector. You will need the court's permission to do this. IDK if the SCC commissioner or judge can grant this. If you need to go to superior court for that it might not be worth it.

But if you manage to sell the settlement you might get 30 cents on the dollar. Is that worth your time? The actual benefit is that you will have put a nice dent in her credit rating. Explaining what you will do and what the results can be, might be persuasive enough to get her to cooperate.

As stated above, lawyers aren't interested in this nickel dime stuff. But if you can inflate the settlement to 5K you have a chance of getting a bill collector to go for it. They know the routine of domesticating the judgement in the defendant's state in order to establish collection.

The key is in having enough monetary damage and proof of loss. If you have no proof you won't get far. I don't need to go into details about proof. There are a lot of details left out, it's just forum talk.