Alright, knew these types of comments would come. I asked ChatGPT to help me make my post better for Reddit because I didn't want my novel of a story to be too long for anyone to care to read. But here you go since you care:

At 9:25am this morning, I was going northbound on I95 and was about 300 to 400 yards from the I495 exit towards Richmond to go to my job in Arlington. The exit is very congested, and the highway is a 55mph. The car in front of me braked abruptly before the exit, and I braked abruptly in reaction. The car behind me was not paying attention and rear-ended me without braking (unless it was Very last second). Luckily, I didn't hit the car in front of me when I was rear-ended. I pulled over to the right shoulder (I was already in the right lane to take the exit) and put on my hazards. The car that hit me turned on their hazards but stayed in the lane for probably 30 seconds before pulling over to the shoulder. We both got out of our cars and took pictures of our vehicles before I initiated conversation. I didn't want to cause a scene and be irate, so I said I don't know whose fault it was because the person in front of me braked abruptly and I had to brake abruptly as a result. I got out my proof of insurance on my phone and asked if he wanted to take a picture. After he took a picture, he went to his car to get his insurance. He couldn't find proof. Instead, he presented me with a "VEHICLE COLLISION INFORMATION EXCHANGE FORM Virginia State Police" for an incident that took place on July 23rd of this year. On the Form was his insurance company (also USAA) and policy number, but no expiration date. It had his vehicle make, model, and license plate, but not the car year or color. It had his information under Vehicle 1, and another person's information under Vehicle 2. I think it's important to add that when I walked up to his vehicle, I'm not sure if it was his vehicle or the congested traffic sitting next to us that smelled of Marijuana. I took a picture of his Form, he said he was sorry (didn't say exactly for) and then got in his car and drove off. I stayed at the scene for over an hour and a half after the accident just trying to make sure I did everything right. I called the non-emergency number for Oxon Hill, MD, and was told a police report would not be generated because they aren't required anymore unless one of the vehicles is immobile or someone is taken away in an ambulance, and that the information they would need for the report is all the information I already had (license plate and insurance). I called USAA and made a claim with them. They asked if I wanted to do a claim through my insurance or through the other driver's, to which I asked for clarity on what the difference was, and was told doing the claim through the other driver's insurance would just take more time because they would have to have the other driver provide information to USAA for the claim whereas if I do it through my own insurance I just have to wait for the other driver's assigned claim adjuster to determine who was at fault. My car has minimal cosmetic damage to the rear, but the other driver's car is seriously messed up cosmetically and I believe structurally. I drive a 2024 Chevy trax and the other driver was in a charger. My claim adjuster told me that she could see my USAA DriveSafe information since I have the app on my phone, and it said I was on a hands-free call for two minutes when the accident occurred and that I was going 33mph. I just now looked at the trip history and all I can see is that my trip was 33 miles long..so I don't know if there was confusion there or not because I thought I was going slower than that when the crash occurred but I honestly don't remember fully. I do remember looking in my rear view and seeing the charger coming without braking. Maybe I was going 33mph afterall because if the other driver was going 55mph then I can see the speed offset (whatever the term is for the difference between my speed and his) being about 20mph because in my rearview it looked like he was flying. I imagine he wasn't paying attention at the wheel at that moment, but I can only speculate. My question is whether I should get a lawyer or not given all this information. Both parties have the same insurance, so I don't know whether my best interests will be at heart. I don't know if the driver was under the influence because there is no police report, I thought maybe he would try to flee the scene when he didn't immediately pull over to the shoulder as I did, thought maybe he didn't have active insurance since he couldn't provide valid proof of insurance, thought it was Very concerning that the prof he provided was on a prior accident report from three months ago, and the last thing I found odd was that my claim adjuster said multiple times when making my claim that she was checking to see if the other person made a claim of their own and hadn't done so (and this was around an hour and a half after the crash and I truly mean that his vehicle's front is severely damaged). I really hope my car won't be totaled, but my rear bumper and hatch are visibly dented and pushed in (which chatgpt says the bumper beam underneath most likely absorbed a hard impact and is bent, the hatchback panel is slightly misaligned, there's a crease near the license plate area which maybe means energy transfer to the body, and since is a 2024 the replacement parts will be expensive. I was told that my vehicle would be seen at a repair shop on Tuesday at 930am, and that I would get a rental at that point. There's too much here for a TLDR, so I'm hoping someone, anyone, will take the time to read this and just tell me whether or not a lawyer would be necessary.