I am a car crash lawyer. As part of my practice clients often have depreciation claims on their automobiles. Usually, these are pretty straightforward, and the insurance company pays a fair sum for deprecation. However, every once in a while, a carrier thinks they will pull a fast one.
This blog post outlines an Indiana Insurance Company (IN-INSCO) and their tactics. They tried to bully my client into accepting 1/4th of the depreciation and I fought back. As of Friday, they paid the depreciation in full AND all of my costs associated in litigation.
Facts And Pre-Lawyer Negotiation
My client was rear ended on the highway. He was driving a $50,000.00 new Lexus. The damage was significant, but the car was not totaled. My client decided to fix the vehicle and then trade it in for a new one. He first went to CarMax and they estimated the deprecation at $12,000.00. He then went to the Lexus dealership and spoke with the general manager. They estimated the deprecation at $5,735.00 and put it in writing. My client then submitted that to the IN-INSCO for payment.
Insurance Company Depreciation Evaluation
IN-INSCO ran the car through their software program and came out with $1,500.00 in depreciation. Is anyone surprised their software came up with a low-ball number! I believe the insurance company thought he would just take the money. Bad guess. My client is in a beer club with another lawyer that asked me to take a look the case.
I did and realized the insurance company was wrong. They have a tendency to do this sort of stuff in my estimation. I offered to handle the case and contacted the insurance company. They immediately came up to $2,500.00. I told them it was the whole amount or I was filing a lawsuit. They declined so I filed suit. I’m not saying I’m the most important lawyer in the world, but from an economic standpoint depreciation claims are not my normal practice. Trying to bluff me did not work.
Fast forward to the deposition of the defendant. She had ZERO idea her insurance company was acting like this. She also agreed the Lexus Dealership was the best to determine depreciation:
Defendant Deposition Testimony
Excerpt below from her deposition.
Page 13:
- Would you trust the depreciation valuation of the Lexus car dealership, the general manager A. Yes.
- Can you think of somebody other or better than the general manager of a Lexus car dealership to make a depreciation evaluation on a vehicle that they sell? A. No.
Page 15:
1. His damages, if the sales dealership says it is 57 hundred bucks and change, should be paid, correct? A. Yes.
Demand For Full Payment
Following the deposition, I sent another email to the insurance company lawyer asking for full deprecation and costs.
In all fairness to this lawyer IN-INSCO put him in a bad spot. No lawsuit would have been warranted had IN-INSCO acted in a reasonable manner from the get-go. They did not and put the lawyer in a bad spot negotiating with me. He was doing the best with what he had.
I was subsequently asked to take very close to full depreciation and told that they would not pay costs. I told them no and that my demand would stay open and then expire. Two hours before the demand deadline they emailed to pay everything we wanted.
Insurance Keeps Me Busy
The mind-blowing aspect of this whole case is that IN-INSCO wanted to dispute the Lexus dealership on deprecation. Who else is going to be a better deprecation expert?
Imagine if IN-INSCO would have offered $5,000.00 to my client from the start. Would have saved their insured the headache and probably $2,500.00 in lawyer fees. It is a business decision and there are too many people and lawyers taking low-ball numbers. Not here though :).
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