Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

Sorry you're having this needless problem. These car property damage (we call them PD) issues can get tricky.

1- Yes the value of your car is, for practical purposes, mostly limited to the so called "book value." I say "practical" because it's very hard to get the ins co to voluntarily pay more without going thru the law suit process. Most insurers now use a vendor to calculate the value. 1 way they do it is by finding at least 3 similar cars on a used car lot & taking the average price, & also averaging in the so called book value. The ins co tells you here's the value take it or leave it. Sometimes ins co is willing to come up a little. So unless you have an injury claim tied in with the PD claim where you sue for PD & injury, & can wait to resolve the PD claim, usually "book value" is all you get.

2- If you promptly give permission for the ins co to move your car (only if it is accepting liability) then ins co usually agrees to pay the storage charges. In fact, as long as you act reasonably in trying to minimize the charges ins co is obligated to pay. I suggest you call (but also email or fax letter to claims rep advising that you give permission for ins co to move the car ASAP. Make sure you remove all your stuff 1st & take many photos of car from different angles & close-up to show the damage.

3- The ins co has a problem due to its insured being drunk (assuming you have proof of DUI). It's a little surprising that ins co is taking it's time to resolve liability issues, especially with your car being parked the crash can't be your fault (unless maybe illegally parked???). Sometimes if there's no injury claim ins co knows its potential liability is limited so it plays games. If the PD coverage limits are low, like $5K, & you have to sue, & you can prove your car value more like the $5K you put into it, & obtain court verdict in excess of the PD policy limits, it may be determined that ins co acted in bad faith by exposing it's insured's personal assets & thus opening it up to a bad faith claim which may obligate ins co to pay you punitive damages which can be quite high. That gets complicated & not what you really want to do.

4- My suggestion is to contact claim rep & find out what the delay is about. Sometimes ins co wants to obtain police report B4 accepting claim & that can take a little while. Sometimes they want to speak to their insured & insured not cooperating. But with a parked car & DUI my guess is they will cave & pay for everything pretty soon. Good luck.