Insurance Company refuses to fix car properly

What is the name of your state? CA.

My car was struck in a parking by another vechine causing major damage to the rear quarter panel, the driver took off. I spent time workinmg with the property management and the store management to get video of the incident, no usable footage was available. So I opened a case with my insurance company, I have to pay the deductable, thats fine.

Now the insurance adjuster came out and took some photos and wrote up her estimate and sent me a check, I of course did not deposit the check! I took the car to the body shop of my choice and had an estimate done. This guy does only insurance work on newer model cars. His estimate was around 5 times that of the insurance company. I've also taken the car to another body shop to get another estimate, which is very close to my body shop's. This includes a full quarter panel replacement. The insurance company is refusing to pay for a quarter panel replacement, and instead want the job done wrong (bondo & paint).

Is this really considered pre-accident condition?

The damage is extremely bad, the entire panel is warpped and I cant even pop the gas door. What can I do? My body shop refuses to do the job incorrectly and this is his specialty.

Look in your insurance policy and read what it says about arbitration. Follow up with that. You cannot make them accept the ONE estimate that you got. You can get several, and they may give you more, but only one written estimate is ridiculous.

Since its your "preferred" shop, how does the adjuster know that the person won't charge you HALF, and then you pocket the rest?

true.

Thanks for the reply!

Good points. I'm planning on getting a few other written estimates tommorow. It just seems odd that they would outright refuse to do a reinspection on the car when the shop asked... I would hope this guy isn't trying to charge me lower rates, and charge the insurance company more. My deductable isn't being waived.

I do know I have a arbitration clause in my pollicy, so am I really limited to arbitration or should/can I retain a lawyer if need be?

This company is currently involved in a class action lawsuit for rate hikes on rates, I am named in the suit. Could it be they be doing this as retribution? Idk. I guess at this point I'm just ranting. Any other advice?

My daughter receintly had her 97 explorer hit in a parking lot at college.Not hit and run.The at fault drivers ins. co certaily tried to pull one over.She was able to drive the carhome and I had a local shop do an estimate.The ins. co wanted to total the car.Saying damage was close to book value. so they were going to send her a check for $3800 and take the car. She paid $7000 5 mos. before from a dealer,and that was a bargain.I got into it bigtime with the claims adjuster,reluctantly they (at this point ,believe they had no choice)had a Insurance claims specialist sent out,I believe he was also a appraiser.He had their documents and book prices and I had mine,off the internet,I also found some advice on the internet saying to get current prices for that car at dealers in local area.Car was still selling for 7500 to 10,000.Appraiser looked at the car,was disgusted with the fact that they wanted to take the daughters car and give her 3800.They would have gotten close to the 3800 through the salvage because the car wasn't that bad and drivable at the time. Bottom line. do your homework.If need be get a specialist ,I think they are only a couple hundred and I'm confident they will get you your out of pocket cost with their estimate. Also,your state may allow for diminished value. That is value your car loses because it was in an accident. Your accident will be reflected on reports such as carfax.These days people will research such companies to see what damage was done to a car in the past through VIN number search.Naturallly a person will buy the car without previous damage ,or look for a reduced price due to previous accident. Thus diminished value has become popular. But you need to look into it and your state must allow it. Good luck and fight on.

Web article that you may find helpful on insurance and car repairs

In my law practice I get questions like this everyday. Usually people are "upside down" on their vehicles. Because so many people have this question, I wrote an article on the issue in my blog, www.NCTrialLawBlog.com

You can also access the specific article by clicking here.


A lot of what has been discussed in these forums is in the article, but there is also some other information and some helpful links to resources.

Good luck!!

Chris Nichols
www.NicholsTrialLaw.com
www.NCTrialLAwBlog.com

NCTrialLawBlog said:

In my law practice I get questions like this everyday. Usually people are "upside down" on their vehicles. Because so many people have this question, I wrote an article on the issue in my blog, www.NCTrialLawBlog.com

You can also access the specific article by clicking here.


A lot of what has been discussed in these forums is in the article, but there is also some other information and some helpful links to resources.

Good luck!!

Chris Nichols
www.NicholsTrialLaw.com
www.NCTrialLAwBlog.com

Click to expand...

If you really want to remain here and help those who have questions, then please remove your commerical links (ads) or they will be removed for you. You are posting against the TOS of this site.

Sorry, but I did read the TOS...

Belize,

I see the point you have made about the TOS, but I actually read them before I posted the links to my own web log. I write the Blog because I have answered the same questions about 4000 times, and it is just easier to refer people there than to retype everything. What I posted was directly responsive to the issue being discussed (i.e.- how do you deal with adjusters offering you low ball offers on reapairs or replacement of vehcicles).

My blog was set up specifically to provide free information to people and lawyers. It is not "commercial". My own website, which I included so that if people wanted to know who I was, and what sort of street cred. I had, is not particularly "commercial" unless you happen to be in Raleigh, NC looking for a personal injury lawyer. In other words, I'm not selling anything, and I'm not financially gaining anything when someone reads my blog.

I've been on a lot of "free" legal forums, and one of the biggest problems, IMHO, is that people post "answers" and you have no idea who they are, or what their qualifications might be. It's legal Russian Roulette following the advice. I firmly believe in answering legal questions for free, and I also don't think anonymity is a good thing when people are making big decisions.

My website (currently being revamped, sorry about the lame placeholder) and my blog are just who I am and are ways for people to gauge the credibility of the information that I provide. I suppose I could have said, "gee, I found this great website with information" and have been coy about this, but that's not being honest.

I really did read the TOS before I posted, and I didn't think I was in violation of anything. I still don't, but at the same time, I don't want to step on people's toes or violate the "unwritten" protocols of this forum.

In the end, I'm just trying to help. Are you saying that I can't ever put a link to one of my own Blog posts? It would help me if you would clarify exactly what you think I did wrong and if I'm in violation of the TOS, point me to the language.

Thanks.

Chris Nichols

Chris,

Thank you for getting back. I have decided to let Mary (our den mother) decide if the TOS has been violated or not. We get so many spammers here that whenever I see a link to another site like this I react.

I know those of us who have been here awhile would appreciate you joining us as we too have answered such questions hundreds of times and still do because, frankly, people are too lazy to search for the answer first.

Welcome and I hope you'll stick around and lend a hand. It can be quite tiresome at times but now and then there is one poster who actually appreciates getting the correct legal answer, whether they like it or not.

g

Ok, I feel better

Belize,
Thanks for the quick response. I feel a lot better that your reaction to my post was fueled by a long history of spam. I'm to same way, and looking at my post, I could see how one might, with a quick "skim", think it was just some spammy crapola.

I suppose Mary will know how to reach me. I do plan on sticking around, and I think you will see that I'm useful. I've done nothing my entire career but work on personal injury cases, and I was the director of litigation for two big law firms in NC before I opened my own shop in January of this year. I've tried a lot of cases, and seen some freaky wierdo law events (to use a technical term).

Anyhow, I'm glad we've both holstered our weapons. Now let's solve some legal puzzlers!!

Any idea why the management has disabled the "signature" feature?

Chris Nichols
Nichols Law Firm
Raleigh, NC

NCTrialLawBlog said:

Belize,

Any idea why the management has disabled the "signature" feature?

Click to expand...

Now that is a question I can answer easily. It's because of the following:

"I say if you live in a trailer, have 10 kids and a broken refridgerator in the front yard, maybe it's time to put down the beer and pick up the condom..."

Imagine, Mary not liking my sig line