What law or rule of evidence would do that, do you figure?
Speaking from nearly 20 years’ legal practice, both criminal and civil (goodness, I can’t believe it’s been that long), there are three issues that have been raised here:
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Criminal liability: As @DrDeth noted, many jurisdictions require specific notice/warning as an element of a criminal trespass charge. As for those that do not, as @Saint_Cad alluded, it’s unlikely that police would invest resources into investigating a nominal trespass for the purpose of taking a photo of a vehicle and even less likely a judge would entertain it. Though I guess it’s possible.
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Civil liability is similarly of little concern as there are apparently no damages for the civil trespass. A trespass lawsuit under the circumstances is a fool’s errand that could in fact backfire because pleadings in the complaint could be used in the more viable suit involving the vehicle collision on the basis of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or law of the case (i.e., admissions to establish elements of the claim in the collision case).
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Admissibility in a collateral action: I’m aware of no exclusionary principle that would preclude admission of a photograph taken on private property by a private citizen under the circumstances described herein. Private citizens acting without direction of law enforcement are not subject to the same 4th Amendment search and seizure restrictions as the police. A court is unlikely to exclude photographs taken in good faith from the curtilage of a residence by an aggrieved party to a civil suit.
Of course, laws vary by jurisdiction, YMMV, this is not legal advice, I’m not your lawyer, etc., etc.
Thank you, it is always nice to hear from an expert-which in this case i am not.
Yes, most US car insurance will cover you in a rental car, in the US and Canada, if you carry collision and comprehensive insurance, up to your policy limits. Similarly to how you are covered on a car you just bought, at least until you have time to add it or switch it on your coverage. So, if you carry those but, say, you drive a pretty inexpensive car, you might not be covered for the full value of a luxury SUV if you total it.
RE credit card: I looked into this recently. My credit card does provide coverage, but it specifies that it is secondary. It will only cover things that other insurance didn’t cover. So it might cover the deductible from your regular insurance, and maybe excess damages over your policy limits, but you’d want to check your particular CC benefit to see what it specifies.
Lots of examples here that come down to it really depends on where you are. For one saying “it’s a crime” isn’t exactly correct. In my state motor vehicle violations are not considered crimes. They are in their own category of non-criminal violations. In other parts of the country you can be physically arrested for any motor vehicle crime. That is not the case in my state. For leaving the scene of an accident it does become a crime if the accident results in Serious Bodily Injury.
I think my former department did a decent job following up with hit and runs. The initial officer would usually follow through as far as they could go when taking a report. If the driver couldn’t be found the traffic safety department would do a follow up. Often there wasn’t much of a follow up. If it was unwitnessed, no plate was seen or the wrong plate was reported there isn’t much that can be done. That’s the majority of the cases. The more information the better the chances. Our traffic guys would like nothing better than to nail a hit and run driver. That often proves to be difficult.