Legal Question in Personal Injury in Oregon
Auto Accident Insurance Dispute
My car was rear-ended by another driver, who readily admitted his fault and submitted the information to his insurance company. His insurance company inspected the damage to my car and declared it a total loss.
First, I feel that the insurance company may be deliberately under-valuing my car in order to avoid paying for repairs. The value assigned to my car is considerably less than the amount I would have to pay to replace it, according to multi-state searches of classified ads.
Second, the insurance company appears to be deducting a "salvage value" from the arbitrary total value in order to make the car a total loss.
What recourse do I have? Are there time limitations?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Auto Insurance dispute
Generally you are not going to get replacement value for your car. Damages awarded in an accident are designed to make you "whole" again. The argument is that you get paid for the value of the car as it was when when it was damaged.
Are they trying to lowball You? They may be. Mnay insurance companies do this. Your recourse is to do the research on what teh car is actually worth and get evidence to support your claim. If it doesn't work then you always can resort to court. If you have a ersonal injury claim then you can make the property damage part of the claim.
Good Luck
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