Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

It depends what you mean by "illegally." If the car had been parked across an intersection around a bend, and it wasn't reasonably foreseeable that it would be there, perhaps there would be an adjustment according to the fault of each party. If it had been parked in, say, a handicapped zone, when it shouldn't have been, you're liable for negligently hitting the car. You might report it to your insurance carrier and let it figure out what's appropriate under the circumstances.

An analogy is the pedestrian who jaywalks and is hit bt a car. Merely because he is illegally crossing the street does not mean you can hit him with your car. If, on the other hand, he darts out from behind a parked car so that a reasonable driver would not have been able to stop in time, then; the driver has no fault as he was not negligent.

I would think not but unfortunately the answer is yes. Also unfortunately I had the dubious distinction of actually trying this issue on a small claims appeal. I lost and the judge was rather annoyed at both me and my client who also happened to be my father and one of the greatest trial attorney's of the last century. Needless to say it wasn't one of my finer days in court, and I almost forgot about it.

So the short answer is yes, you will have to pay for the damage.

Good luck and hope that helps.