Ok, need some legal assistance/advice, car got hit, fighting with insurance. Options

[mark_426]

I'm going to try to keep this brief, but it's hard to do with proper details.

Anyway

My brother had my car at his boss's house. The wife backed into it with an electric truck.. hit the passenger side front quarter.

Well, we get three estimates for how much it will cost to repair. Neat.

The people who hit us have State Farm Insurance, and when they saw the figures, they wanted to let state farm cover it. Ok.

Hmm, we call, and try to get in touch with a claims adjuster, blah blah blah... Finally have "Melanie" calling the wrong number, etc, and another week goes by. Finally get another claims lady to call us and get Melanie. Great.

Schedule an appointment for an insurance adjuster to come. They give us a four hour timeframe, and a date, and never confirm it. How convienient when two of us need to get off work.

Well, almost three weeks later, an insurance adjuster comes and checks the car out. My insurance quotes were on my seat, and he looked inside. He grabbed them, looked at them, and told us he had to take them to check the prices... well ok, even though they're there from three companies. Next, what a suprise, he says, "Hmm, I don't know how much this stuff is worth, so I'll have to make some calls, and then I'll report it, and the office will send you your check."

Ok, this was Monday (that he said this). Today, we call to find out what's up, as we hadn't received a call or anything. Ok, here's the price. $2349.

Well, sh*t. Estimates all said 5200, 5600, 5900, for parts and labor. Replacement equivalent parts alone are $2399. Then, I need install, and paint and prep.


What can I do to try to get enough to pay for it/ what would you do?

heres what it looks like:

[Galcobar]

Who is your insurance company? File a claim with them, have them recover the money for you. They won't care that it's a big claim, because they won't be filing it. And your premiums should not be affected, as it's the fault of an identified, insured party. The person at fault is the one who will face the premium increase.

Get more estimates -- and make sure one is from Toyota. Ask your insurance compnay to have State Farm provide written reasons why all three submitted estimates were rejected.

If your insurance is State Farm, then you lack an advocate for you in the process, which makes it more difficult. Make State Farm justify every line item, don't let them give you a lump sum and say "that's how much we're offering, take it or leave it."

One point: they'll try to discount everything they can based on the age of the car. If your paint job is newer or in excellent condition -- wash, polish and wax before any appraisal -- they'll have a harder time justifying it.