Good Evening Folks,

I am in need of some experienced advise on the court and lawyer type of subject. I had my wife's car parked in a parking lot and this 18 wheeler came through and clipped the bumper and ripped it off . He seemed to have wanted to take off until I reckon he saw me in what seemed to hurdle a 12 foot fence (exaggeration) in one jump armed to the hilt with a pen and pad. Exchanged a little information as well as getting Harris County to come and make a report. I called the company the next working day morning to be told "oh, just get three extimates, fax it to us and we should probably be able to take care of that". (Meaning they dont want it to go to the laps of their insurance company for obvious reasons). So I take about a whole day (remember, I already have 17 hours of everyday booked up for business) and waste the gas running around getting three estimates. The estimates I got were $2,000, $2,300 and $2,5XX to fix what was damaged. I personally delivered the estimates to the company (Magnaflow on Beltway 8 and 59) but get the cold shoulder from whom I am trying to get this taken care of. Grant it that I know probably in Kelly's Blue Book or to anybody that cares that it's not worth over $2,500 but I only wanted the car back to it's norm before he/they came through the parking lot. The guy offered me $1,000 and I told him that it's not a regular Taurus but it's a SHO (ok, so probably there are 90% of the people anywhere that doesnt know the difference of a SHO and a Taurus but just let me add it's a Japanese Yamaha engine detuned from Japan from 300hp to 225 hp, and btw it's a 1993 in very good condition.) FINALLY my question is, I have been advised to get a lawyer that will take the case that will take a reasonable percentage/fee (oxymoron = reasonable/lawyer/fee) and give this guy a hard time even though I will obviously not come out as much as I like too or to take this in small claims court? I do not want to come on top or make any money out of this, I just want my/my wife's car back to the way it was. Any serious and mature input would be muchly appreciated. Thank you for your time in reading this book.

 

You said you exchanged info.....if you got their insurance info, just call them and file it.

 

The card did not have a number on it believe it or not. I tried googling it but keep coming back up empty.

 

Any others for advice?

 

Just tell them you want their insurance to handle it then. They cannot refuse to give you the insurance. Check with the police. They should have gotten this information to write a report.

 

Small Claims Court. Easiest way to handle it. You dont need a lawyer and the limit you can sue for is $5K. I am assuming that you have a police report? Just bring that, the estimates and the ********.... you will be alright.

Go here and you can learn how to do it......http://www.jp.hctx.net/civil/default.htm

 

Id spend a couple more days on the insurance angle because it will take up less of your time than going to the court house, filing, paying a server, showing up for your case, then trying to collect your judgment. If you can't find their insurance company and they won't give it to you, small claims it is. Since its a company, I would also attempt to file a claim with the BBB just for grins.

 

Just do small claims court, for the amount of money disputed it is not worth it to hire a lawyer and take it to litigation (by then you would probably spent more than the disputed amount on legal fees and court fees). You have their company admitting the driver hit your wife's car and telling you to get three estimates, and you have the three estimates. Just bring all the paper work (including any correspondence with the company) to the court.

 

Did they have a TXDOT number on the truck? If they did you can call the state and they have on file who their insurance is and go about it that way. Small Claims will be a waste of your time, they wont show up anyways. If that doesnt work, you can call Texas dept. of Insurance and they can pull up the company (if its real) and get you the info. Then just file a claim under their insurance. Hope that helps.

JP

 

Update: I finally got a hold of their insurance carrier (thanks Yahoo) and have faxed the police report (that shows 100 % that it's his fault) with a claim #. Seems like half the people here are for small claims and the other half are for lawyer. Pretty interesting, too bad nobody has gone through the same thing as me in here.
Anybody want to buy a 93 SHO with a missing bumper as a back up car? (I need a truck or custom van for the kids and business).

 

The small claims court sounds good after the fact when/if his insurance company pays what they will brandish for the value of my/my wife's car. Let's say the car is worth $1,800 blue book or whatever tool they use to come upon this and it cost me $2,500 to get everything to where it was. The insurance company reinburses me around let's say...$1,500. Do you folks think I can take the balance that it cost me ($1,000) in small claims court and recooperate this? Take for measures that it's only $25 to file and another $65 to get a constable to serve the papers, I dont think it's a bad deal, I am now after giving him a pain in the *** time since he had me going around a whole day getting 3 quotes for nothing and wasting the gas.

 

Dude, for small money ****, most lawyers arent going to touch it unless you are paying them by the hour. Even then, a typical retainer starts at $2500 and up. When lawyers work on contingency, they only get paid when they win, and they take a good % of it. So when working on contingency, 99.9% of lawyers are only going to take on cases where there was some bodily injury, and medical treatment/rehabilitation ($$$).

You need to find out what the law says. I believe that the law in TX says that they are only required to reimburse the cost of repair, or the current value of the vehicle, whichever is lesser. If that were the case, youd get absolutely nowhere in a small claims case. But I am no lawyer, and that may not infact be what the law says. But im pretty sure of it.

 

That's probably the route that I need to go then. Let their insurance pay probably about what he wanted to pay but still let his rate take a hike. Thanks each and all for your input and being mature about it.

Any others want to chime in on your opinion and experiences?