Legal Question in Insurance Law in Illinois

Was involved in auto accident. Was not my fault the other insurance paid for damages on my vehicle but after repairs were done tried to trade vehicle and was offered 10,000 and 7500 less trade in value due to the 11,000 damage reported on car fax. Trying to reclaim diminished value from insurance company. Do I have a valid claim and how do i go about making the claim. Tried on my own and had little success.Hired a prof appraisal group and valued dv loss at appr 9000. It is a newer higher valued vehicle.


Asked on 6/15/11, 2:02 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Someone has to read your policy thoroughly, but highly doubtful. Usually the insurance policy creates an an option for the insurance company: fix the car if the costs of repair are less than 50% of the current (approx.) value, or "total" the car and pay you the current (approx.) value of the vehicle immediately prior to the accident. Once they're done, they're done, and if you signed a policy settlement and release, you're also done. That being said, then it's typically up to you: keep the car, or trade it in. Sometimes an insurance company will "total" a car even if the costs of repair are less than 50% of value if the structural integrity of the car was compromised, but you present no information to that effect. I followed a relatively newer Lexus home yesterday with "plates applied for" plates on it, and the car was driving diagonally, meaning the front and rear ends were minimally out of alignment and more likely was in a major crash but somehow put back together; those are the cars that should be totalled......

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Answered on 6/16/11, 11:06 am


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