Legal Question in Civil Litigation in North Carolina

You can file in small claims court for the value of the damages so another mechanic can be paid to repair them. You can only sue for emotional distress if you have medical records and a diagnosis that you were seen and diagnosed with mental distress. You won't get punitive damages in this case.

This is a small claims case. Here's the problem, you gotta prove the first shop screwed up. You alone getting on the stand might not do the trick. So you may need another mechanic to testify or at least write a statement for you. One way to handle it is to have another mechanic fix the problem, write out a statement of what was done wrong by the other shop and then sue for the amount of the bill for the new mechanic. As Mr. Love points out, you won't be getting punitive damages and you won't be getting emotional distress damages either - that's just silly and you don't meet the requirements for it based on the info you provided. One last thing, since you are in Jacksonville, you will need to be acquainted with good 'ol boy politics. A local mechanic is not very likely to write a statement that another local mechanic screwed up especially if you are military. Unless of course the two local mechanics are in a good 'ol boy feud and hate each other. You may wanna make some inquiry about your new mechanic's opinion of the first before you have them do the work or you could end up having to sue two mechanics!