Legal Question in Insurance Law in Texas

Auto Accident-was hit from behind

My son was sitting at a red light and was hit from behind by a truck. We called the police and they came out and did a police report. The boy's parents called us and ask us to get estimate on fixing the car and they would pay for it instead of calling the insurance company. The esitmates came out to be 5-6000.00 worth of damage. The car places said the insurance company would total the car first since it was a 97 and had 144000 miles on it. In the last 6 months we paid 2500.00 for the car, paid 1,000.00 to replace the convertible top, put new tires, did motor work on it and paid 700.00 for a body kit. We have about 5,000.00 invested in the car. The parent now do not want to pay to have the car repaired and made us an offer of 2300.00, which I'm not about to take. We just want the car repaired nothing more, nothing less. They told us that if we turned it in on the insurance that we would only get 2100.00 for the car. Is there any recourse that we can take to get the funds we just put in this car in the last 6 months back? Thats a lot of money to lose and we can't replace the car for 2300.00. What advice can you give me. Thanks.


Asked on 1/10/05, 2:59 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Dan Street Street Law Firm

Re: Auto Accident-was hit from behind

Unfortunatly, Texas is a pro-insurance and big business state (which means anti-little guy), and the laws here are designed to protect insurance companies and big business. When someone destroys your vehicle, they (or their insurance company) are only required to pay EITHER the cost of repair OR the "fair market value," WHICHEVER IS LESS. Fair market value means basically what you should have been able to sell the car for the moment before the accident. While a new top, new tires, and the other work you did certainly must have increased the fair market value some, you almost never get a dollar-for-dollar appreciation in value for your improvements because those things are considered to be "routine maintenance" on an 8-year old car. I have no way of knowing whether $2300 is an accurate "fair market value" assessment (there are dozens of factors that go into determining that). You can go to www.kbb.com and do the math yourself. Also, if your son is injured, do him and yourself a favor and hire a personal injury lawyer. You may get shorted a bit on your car, but a good PI lawyer can make up for some of it in your son's bodily injury settlement. Good luck.

Read more
Answered on 1/10/05, 3:13 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Insurance Law questions and answers in Texas