Glad you're safe and sound man.

On a side note, makes me feel better knowing our cars can take a knockout hit like a champ!,

 

glad to hear you're ok.

 

On the lease thing. Was it a down payment or prepaid payments like a one pay? You know you have a 2 year lease and pay all the payments up front?

I would take finding out about this very seriously as it could diminish the value as much as $10,000. I am far from an expert but I do know an insurance company will pay as little as possible if they can.

 

I just wanted to comment about devaluation of cars after accidents. The whole car fax thing has created a major problem for resale of cars involved in even minor accidents. My CL63 has a bad car fax from a rear ending where i had to replace the bumper cover and also the right front fender and hood. The work done on the car is impeccable but I've lost at least 10,000 dollars on a trade in value due to the car fax. Due to this I think that I probably would never buy another car unless it was a weekend toy. Has anyone else had car fax issues?

 

Looks like getting a Black Box will NOT be optional in a few years:
http://infowars.com/mandatory-big-br...ars-from-2015/

But I like the following idea:

 

I've got no issue with that if it actually happens, there are so many scams going on involving auto accidents & insurance and the clown that hit the OP is a prime example. If you aren't doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to hide IMO.

Even if something like that doesn't make law, I would opt for a black box if available in the next car I buy, I think it's a good 'side insurance' policy.

 

sorry to hear about the accident...dont know why retards run red lights...I've almost been hit the same way before ugh

 

That did happen to me in my M3 sedan last summer. Woman drove right through a solid red light and side swiped my car at 35mph or so (see attached).

In any event my experience also is relevant to some earlier questions in this thread about totaling v. not totaling the car. In my case, my frame was bent and I did not want the car fixed for a number of reasons given the extent and type of the damage (most notably because the BMW dealership I bought it from wouldn't buy it back even if fixed because of the type of damage and resulting CARFAX report). The at fault party's insurance company refused to total the car and said I had to accept repairs.

Now when I went to law school I was taught that one acceptable measure of tort damages for property damage is the difference in value before and after the tort (here the car accident). I researched the issue, saw there was authority in the auto accident area for this position in my jurisdiction and when the insurance company refused to accept my position I sold my M3 with the damage pursuant to a competitive auction process. I then obtained an auto appraisal of what my vehicle would have sold for without the accident damage. I then claimed the difference between the salvage sale proceeds and the pre accident appraised value as my damages as well as the applicable sales tax on a replacement vehicle of the same appraised price along with reimbursement for body shop storage and inspection fees. After a few weeks of fighting with the insurance company in a letter writing war I got virtually everything I asked for.

I think this story is relevant for those who own very expensive specialty cars and suffer a great deal of damage from an accident that will destroy the retail value of their car even after repairs are made but that the insurance company of the at fault party wants to repair because of the high value of the car relative to the repair cost. If you are willing to dig in and spend the time and are careful in building your case you may very well prevail if you want your car totaled.

 

Definitely good information to have for future reference. For those of us who are not in the legal-field, where do we go to research things on whether such is applicable in our jurisdiction? What about all the letters that we need to prepare to the insurance company after we have done the homework and have all the infos and numbers as you mentioned above? Can all these be done by an average joe?...Or is it the best for us to go to an attorney to have those prepared for submission? If that is the case, what type of attorney should we look for?

By the way, I see you like blue for your cars.

 

Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw are where most lawyers do their legal research on-line but in this area you can get quite a bit online from google searches in your jursidiction -- typically from plaintiff's lawyer websites and advocacy websites. Still a faster and cheaper option is just to go your your city law library (most cities have not for profit ones you can pay a small fee to use) and check legal encyclopedias for caselaw in your jurisdicton under the auto accident heading. Most states follow what is called the restatement 2nd of torts which essentially sets up the right to 1.) repairs or 2.) diminished value as compensation for a property damage tort. There are some exceptions that have developed in the case law for custom built espensive property (e.g. ships) that require repair but in my research on the issue I did not see any law that required this for cars even though the insurance companies try to claim that is the case.

This is definitely something the average joe can do himself but it takes time and patience. Alternatively, you can just go to a personal injury or other plaintiff's lawyer who will throw the property damage claim into a personal injury claim.

Quick note, this is only viable for 3rd party claims, not 1st party claims where you are at fault because your insurance company contract governs your right to recovery in that situation (subject to state statutes on fair dealing for insurance companies).

 

Pgordon888, thanks for those valuable information. I'm bookmarking this post. Hopefully I would never have to use it, though.