I sued for diminished value, and won. My experience

[herulamas]

Thought I would share my experience for anyone that is interested in going down the path of getting dimished value. I represented myself pro-se through all court filings.

My 2016 BMW M3 was hit by someone in February of 2020. It was repaired adequately for the sum of ~$14,000. I initially asked for diminished value, and was told by State Farm that they take the position that a well repaired vehicle does not suffer diminished value, and wouldn't pay anything. I had a diminished value 'appraisal' that came up with $7,000 of diminished value. I thought the report was well done, but won't link here because I don't want to be seen as a shill. After receiving and presenting the report, they still would not budge on any diminished value, so I filed for "Automobile Arbitration". For a $10 fee, my state allows you to sue outside of small claims and request arbitration.

After filing arbitration, I received the typical legal list of "defenses" as to why their client was not liable. I also talked with the lawyer representing state farm who gave me the same speech about diminished value cases being hard to win, about how the appraisal was heresay etc.. I also received my first offer to settle the case for $3,000. I countered with $5,000 but they were unwilling to settle the case.

After nearly a year my case was finally scheduled to be seen by the arbitrators. I made 5 binders of my evidence. One for each of the arbitrators, one for me, and one for opposing council. The piece of evidence I found most convincing were offers from Carvana & Vroom. I went ahead and got "instant offers" on my vin (where the carfax showed 1 accident), and then I went to autotrader and found an identical car that had a no accident carfax and generated an "instant offer" for that car. The identical cars showed a ~7-10k difference in offers. The opposing council argued that all used car prices had risen, and my car was worth more than at the time of the accident. I conceded that yes that was true, but the spread between an undamaged vehicle, and a damaged vehicle remained the same (~$7k).

After discussion the panel of 3 lawyers who were serving as arbitrators returned a judgement in my favor for the full amount ($7,000). It was a long process, and honestly probably not worth my time, but I felt like I was wronged and wanted to see it resolved. I'm writing this post so hopefully someone in the future who is going through the process will have an idea of how it goes. Below is the 'summary' page from my binder:

Summary

• Actual Offers on Plaintiff Car (Orange):

o $21,000 – CarMax In Person (April, 2020)

o $33,525 – Carvana Online (August, 2021)

o $32,616 – Vroom Online (August, 2021)

o $31,439 – Carvana Online (February, 2022)

o BMW Dealership unable to make offer.

• Actual Offer on Comparable No Accident Car (Yellow)

o $41,255 – Carvana Online (February, 2022)

• Actual Offer on Comparable No Accident Car (Green)

o $44,381 – Vroom Online (August, 2021)

• Contemporaneous offers from the same dealer on two comparable vehicles show:

o Vroom (Aug, 21) - (44,381-32,616=$11,765)

o Carvana (Feb, `22) – (41,255-31,439=$9,816)

• The most conservative reading of the offers shows $7,730 in diminished value. The largest actual offer on plaintiff's car over two years was $33,525, and the lowest actual offer on a comparable “no accident” car was $41,255.

• Third party appraisal estimated $6,900 in diminished value.

 

[jayackam]

@herulamas Diminished value win against an insurance carrier is rare, congrats!

 

[thebiblesays]

@jayackam The only reason it's rare is because of the drawn out process that he was forced to go through.

It was a long process, and honestly probably not worth my time,

That right there is what makes it rare.

OP very clearly had a loss that the other party was at fault for at every stage of this process and State Farm shirked its responsibility to make him whole.

 

[nomiplease]

@thebiblesays It just pisses me off so much. I successfully won $2000 on an old Honda a few years back. It really fucking pisses me off though because there is truly a stain on a car after an accident and repair. The item that I own is worth less because it has been damaged compared to someone else’s un damaged item

 

[jayackam]

@thebiblesays Yea, it definitely comes down to opportunity cost. The reality is that op has a vehicle from 2016 that was worth over $30k which is definitely rare. Most 2016 vehicles are much lower in value.

If there is a DV claim then the amount is tiny, and even if the insurance company fights it its typically not worth it to get an appraiser and fight the decision.

 

[thebiblesays]

@jayackam I only kind of agree. a 2016 car/truck worth over 30k is actually pretty common, and the fist claim loss on a car/truck of any kind is going to substantially impact it's secondary market value. That's the whole point of CarFax and similar products: 'We allow you to pay less for cars with accident histories (and lemon law buyback, fleet usage, etc.)

If there is a DV claim then the amount is tiny, and even if the insurance company fights it its typically not worth it to get an appraiser and fight the decision

Insurance companies should be paying penalties for not including it. If it's the vehicles first loss on record, you include a separate quote for DV once the vehicle is repaired.

 

[roxie12]

@thebiblesays You are kinda skipping a couple steps here. The route to getting DV paid out consistently on claims is to have the state move towards an agreed upon formula for calculating it like Georgia. After you have established what is a reasonable DV payout you can penalize insurance companies for making low offers in bad faith. Right now most states stance is that 0$ is reasonable for 95+% of claims.

And insurance companies really don't care one way or the other. If you mandate DV be paid out on every claim, they just increase premiums across the board and they do not take a hit to their bottom line. Its all the same to them.

 

[thebiblesays]

@roxie12

The route to getting DV paid out consistently on claims is to have the state move towards an agreed upon formula for calculating it like Georgia

The route to paying it out is comping the car against ones with no prior damage record, and then pulling comps of prior damaged vehicles of the same condition otherwise. There is no formula beyond that, that's the diminished value of the car.

Right now most states stance is that 0$ is reasonable for 95+% of claims.

That's fine, most states are wrong.

And insurance companies really don't care one way or the other.

Totally untrue. On an individual claim level they don't, but on a broader claims policy level they totally do.

DV be paid out on every claim, they just increase premiums across the board and they do not take a hit to their bottom line. Its all the same to them.

No, being forced to cover something that was not covered before means you only get to recover on the back end. That's a big deal to companies.

You will also see that insurance carriers steadily fight against any expansions to covered causes of loss for liability, every time. That tells you that they do care otherwise they wouldn't advocate against those changes.

 

[shane321]

@jayackam May be rare, but now there's a proven roadmap showing others how to get from A to B.

 

[mymakersdaughter100]

@shane321 Yep but it should be covered, especially on high-performance cars that stand to lose a LOT of value based on this.

 

[lm231]

@jayackam Especially State Farm,they have deep pockets.

 

[resjudicata]

@herulamas FYI. Arbitration is not "suing". It's alternate dispute resolution, specifically intended to be an alternative to litigation.

 

[herulamas]

@resjudicata That may be the case, but it looked very much like a lawsuit to me. All motions were filed through the court system, but I take your point.

 

[resjudicata]

@herulamas Arbitration can be administered through the courts, and the determinations are legally binding (as opposed to mediation, which is not). However, the process is much more "informal" than a lawsuit. I'm pointing it out because it's important for people to remember that there are alternative (and often much cheaper) ways to settle disputes than lawsuits, which is what many people turn to when it comes to insurance. Good on you for going about it the right way.

 

[deadtotheworldforchrist]

@herulamas This is excellent. Congrats!