Suing in small claims court

[Hugh R]

Doesn't look like a lot of damage but its the door and some of the L/R quarter panel. The car is 3 months old and has only a few thousand miles on it.

[Brando]

Hugh, I hope you win. BS to 'deny' the claim. Although former insurance company employees will probably tell you the policy is deny first, fight second, settle if you have to, pay much much later.

[John Rogers]

Something similar happened to our oldest daughter. She has been hit years ago by a pizza driver who ran a red light and his and the pizza company said there would never have been an accident if she wasn't driving there in the first place so they never paid and she was scared to get a lawyer!

A little over a year ago she was banged even harder than your car with one of those motorized cart movers and the guy panicked and couldn't get it to stop. She got out and went into a really bad panic attack and fainted from stress, the two kids were screaming, the cops came, an ambulance came and what happened.....The store's insurance settled, fixed the car, covered medical and she got some extra $$$$ to as they said "take a week off and go the Disneyland"!

So, you have to make a huge scene, especially in CA it seems!!??

[Evans, Marv]

As I understand it (only been to small claims court three times), you can only make a claim for the amount of the actual damage, so getting some amount for diminished value may not fly. Try it though. They can only deny that part.

[drcoastline]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

If I go through my ins. carrier, they will fix the damage and apply my $1,000 deductible. Its a local smallish chain based in the LA area.

Slow down Hugh. First, do you have comp/collision on the car? Second, did you get a police report? Third, any witnesses?

If you have comp/collision run the calim through your carrier pay the deductible. during subrogation they will collect your deductible for you.

[Evans, Marv]

Just saw your photo. I suggest you take another with one of the store's carts next to the car to show how the creases line up with the basket on the cart.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Totally sucks but I'm not surprised based on my own experiences. Car insurance is becoming increasingly worthless to carry; I can see why so many people roll the dice and go without.

I hope you prevail - you should. Whether she saw the carts or not is irrelevant - she had no way to avoid them anyway from the sound of it.

They tried to dick me over my 951 fire claim and I recently had a certain company (no names but starts with "P" and rhymes with "regressive") not only try to dick me but essentially call me a liar. They paid for that one. Oh boy did they pay...

[javadog]

Why use small claims court? That seems to be enough money to use a regular court, with a lawyer. I had a similar incident with my wife's Mercedes and a sod farm tractor. $4k, plus attorney's fees.

JR

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by DARISC

If you win, how do you intend to collect?

Won't be hard against a business. They have bonds and things. I'd rather have to collect from a business than a private individual.

Originally Posted by drcoastline

Slow down Hugh. First, do you have comp/collision on the car? Second, did you get a police report? Third, any witnesses?

If you have comp/collision run the calim through your carrier pay the deductible. during subrogation they will collect your deductible for you.

Pretty hard to get police response if there's no injury evident at the moment. You provide them with the report along with one to the DMV on what's called a SR-1.

Yes, witnesses if you have the presence of mind to gather them at the moment. I school people to get out of their car and take pics of all the cars (plates) and people present. They can be subpoenaed later if need be.

Don't neglect the SR-1. They will jerk your driver's license if you don't file. Happened to my wife when she didn't file on my Carrera. It wasn't for me to file, I didn't have the accident.

[stomachmonkey]

One word of advice is to print out the pics and toss them in your owners manual folio.

If you ever sell the car and the damage shows up on a carfax you can show the potential buyer the pics.

Had to replace the bumper skin on my 3000GT. Kept the damage and repair progress pics showing it was only cosmetic damage which is not an issue for most people.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by javadog

Why use small claims court? That seems to be enough money to use a regular court, with a lawyer. I had a similar incident with my wife's Mercedes and a sod farm tractor. $4k, plus attorney's fees.

JR

It's not likely in Hugh's case that there is a basis to recover attys fees.

That makes a big difference. If there is no basis to recover attys fees, suing in Hugh's case in regular court with a lawyer is a guaranteed net money loser.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by McLovin

It's not likely in Hugh's case that there is a basis to recover attys fees.

Why not? I know Calfornia can be different than the rest of the known universe but around here, I used a regular court and got my damages, plus attorney's fees. Similar sort of incident, similar monetary damages, defendant was a coproration, etc. What is is that makes his situation different?

JR

EDIT: answered my own question. From a CA gov. web site:

If you win, the court can order the losing side to pay your court fees and costs BUT if you filed a limited civil case when you could have filed in small claims court, the judge can decide not to order the losing side to pay for fees and costs.

Damn liberal judges...

[McLovin]

In California, every winning party in a lawsuit can recover his court fees and costs.

But "court fees and costs" mean just that. It does not include attorneys fees. It's stuff like your complaint filing fee, court reporter/deposition costs, etc. In a typical lawsuit, recoverable "court fees and costs" is a fraction of the attys fees incurred (like, maybe 5%).

Attys fees in California are only recoverable if a statute specifically provides for it (not very common), or you have a contract that provides for it.

[javadog]

So, every California lawsuit is a money-losing deal...

Nice.

JR

[McLovin]

That's not really true. Most contracts that are subject to litigation in California have an attys fee provision, so attys fees are recoverable in a lot of cases. An attys fee provision is boilerplate in most business/commercial contracts between businesses throughout the US.

But, sometimes people who prepare contracts in California intentionally leave out attys fees provisions. That's when the person preparing the contract thinks they more likely will be at the "defense" end of a dispute, rather than the "offense" end.

A good example - Atty engagement agreements!

Most in Cal. don't have an atty's fee provision. B/c in a dispute under an atty engagement letter, the only thing an atty can reallysue for is unpaid fees. Most attys won't sue for unpaid fees (b/c they know they will be hit with a cross complaint for malpractice). But a lawyer knows he can always be sued for malpractice (client got a bad result, case went sideways, etc.). So no attys fee provision.

[Joe Bob]

Typically you sue for the deductible and settle with your insurance.....then if you win the Insurance goes after them for the amount they sent you.....

[Hugh R]

No witnesses, even though it was busy, its a hispanic market and pretty much every walked away quickly. It is a bigish corporation with about 20 stores in CA.

[Joe Bob]

Take out an ad in La Opinion, the LA Spanish language daily about you are being treated. Send the text prior to publication to the 'nozzle that denied your claim.....

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Typically you sue for the deductible and settle with your insurance.....then if you win the Insurance goes after them for the amount they sent you.....

I'm wondering about that. I know I couldn't collect on a collision so I called my ins co to get things rolling at the body shop. My ins co took care of everything. The other party got an at fault ticket and written up for taking out a bus stop in the same deal (along with 2 other parked cars).

AFAIK, my ins co never got a dime out of the other driver. I do remember that she produced some kind of proof of insurance, but the cops wouldn't let me talk to her. They told me to get the police report in 2 weeks (yeah, LBPD sucks donkey balls). So I had to leave the scene not even knowing who hit my parked truck (and totalled it).

Later on discussing buying back the salvage I get the idea that nowadays ins cos just take care of their own and it all washes. More trouble than it's worth to collect 4K to them.

If it was my guess, I think the girl was in her dad's car but had no insurance on herself. Who knows? They won't tell me and now that's it's over, I don't care.

This has little to do with shopping carts and new Bimmers. sorry.

[ramonesfreak]

i would ask the carrier for the def. if they would be willing to pay your deductible in satisfaction of any further claims against their insured...

in my experience as a lawyer and in the insurance biz in general, i understand that if the adjuster says no, that adjuster knows you will be naming their insured in a lawsuit. when their insured is served the summons and realizes they may have to pay out of their pocket, they get mad and shop around....."why the hell isnt my insurance co paying for this?".....etc...

btw, the named defendant will be the wrong doer, not their carrier.... the carrier has no contract with you