Before answering that question, it's important to know if you should even be invoking the appraisal clause, or whether you have a "first-party" or "third-party" claim. First Party - You are at fault for the crash, or there is a dispute as to who is at fault for the crash. Therefore, you are having to deal with your own insurance company. Also, if someone hits you and is at fault, but they also have the same insurance company, it would be a first-party claim. When you have a first-party claim, your claim would technically be a breach of contract when they fail to pay you. Third-Party - Someone else hit you and is clearly at fault for the crash. Third-Party claims are "tort" claims. A tort is when someone wrongs you and causes you damage. For a tort claim, we have to file a complaint in magistrate court in whatever county the Defendant (person that hit you) lives. Each insurance company has its own contracts, but most large insurers have something called an "Appraisal Clause." Knowing whether your insurance has an appraisal clause can be figured out by letting us review your policy, or simply asking the adjuster in charge of your case. Most Appraisal Clauses are parts of the contract that state something similar to this: If you disagree with the diminished value amount that we (the insurance company) have reached, likely using the 17(c) formula, then you must invoke this clause. To invoke, you have to hire your own independent expert (which we would do for you) and send an expert appraisal. The insurance company will also hire its own independent appraiser. The two experts try to come to an agreement. If they reach an agreement, then that is the settlement value. If they can't reach an agreement, each party splits the cost of an "umpire." An umpire is usually another independent appraiser. He reviews both reports and issues a final ruling as to the value. Getting the right Umpire is crucial, not letting the insurance companies choose an Umpire that will side with them is where you, as the individual, can tank the value of your case. Most of the time, especially with an experienced negotiator, cases don't get this far in the appraisal clause because the insurance companies are fearful of a poor decision. Of course, give us a call to help you with your case, or just ask questions about the process. 770-557-2838.

Where do I Start for a Diminished Value claim? Step 1: Hire Gastley Law Just kidding... but seriously... give us a call. 770-557-2838. Actual Step 1: Get your vehicle repaired at a trusted auto shop. So many body shops across Georgia will tank your diminished value claim by not fully repairing your car. They will work off what the insurance company provides them and not do the job you deserve. Your insurance company is not recommending a body shop because they do the best job, they are recommending a body shop that will do the repair as cheaply as possible. If your car has already been repaired by a body shop, no worries, you still likely have a good claim, it's not the end of the world. Step 2: Get a copy of the repair estimate. You are entitled to a final copy of the repair. Call the body shop or your insurance company and ask for it. At this point, feel free to send it over to us for an estimate on what we think your claim could be worth. Our head case manager's email is Nik@GastleyLaw.com Step 3: Get a diminished value offer from your insurance company. Throughout the claims process, your case may have been assigned to an individual adjuster (if you are lucky). Many times, it's assigned to a team where, seemingly, no one ever shows up to work, answers the phone, or answers your emails. If you have a responsive adjuster that you can call directly, you are way ahead of the game. Call your insurance company, suffer through the hold music and endless run arounds, and ask them to evaluate your case and make a diminished value offer. Give them a few days. If you can't get someone on the phone, let us do it for you. Step 4: Reject the insurance company's initial offer. Insurance companies never give full value on diminished value claims in their first offer. If they did, we wouldn't be writing this blog post and wouldn't have a job. But they try to underpay at every turn, so here you are reading this post. They will likely tell you to hire an independent appraiser at this point. If you want to get more than their tiny first offer, you will need an expert opinion report specifically for your car. Step 5: Find an appraiser to independently value your vehicle. This is where experience comes in handy. There are hundreds of independent appraisers you can choose from. You can have your uncle write you a report if you want, but the insurance companies will only consider those from trusted sources. Unfortunately, in a sea of appraisers with well made websites and google advertising, it's almost impossible to know which ones are actually good. Also, not every appraiser is right for each case. Certain insurance companies have flagged certain appraisers and undervalue their reports no matter how well they are written. Only experience can help determine which appraiser would be the best on your case. Step 6: Pay for an expert report. These appraisers don't work for free. Some will give you a free valuation number, but you HAVE to have a full report. Most charge anywhere from $200 to $1,500 for their report on your diminished value case. If you hire Gastley Law to represent you, we front this cost, pick an expert, and get the report created and sent over. If your case ends worth nothing (which is rare) we will eat this expense entirely at no cost to you. The easiest thing to do is give us a call, let us help you, and sit back and relax. Step 7: Negotiate your claim, invoke the appraisal clause, or file a lawsuit. Now is the real complicated part that requires individual blog posts of their own. At this step, after you have sent over an expert appraisal to your insurance company, they have likely gone up from their initial value. You probably have no idea what your case is worth, though, because insurance companies rarely pay the entire estimate from your appraiser. They may have even increased their offer by thousands of dollars, which is great, but may still not be enough for your case. Let us review the offer and tell you if it's worth invoking the appraisal clause or filing a lawsuit. Depending on the type of claim, whether it's a first party or a third party claim, the next step you take is different. To know the difference in the types of claims, check out our blog post on the topic! Still confused? That's perfectly normal. If this were an easy process like following your grandma's old recipe for chocolate chip cookies, we wouldn't be writing this post. Feel free to give us a call directly at 770-557-2838 to discuss your case. We will explain the ins and outs in more detail and let you decide if you'd like to hire us!

How much is your diminished value case worth? The classic, and unsatisfying answer, is that it depends. Each case is different. The insurance companies try to use a mathematical formula called the 17(c) formula. This formula is rigged to pay you as little as possible. Unfortunately, we don't have a simple mathematical plug-and-play formula like the insurance companies do. The independent experts that we hire rely on a few different factors to properly evaluate each case. Hiring an expert can sound complicated, but we front that expense and only work with the most trusted experts to evaluate your car. They rely on the following factors: Type of Vehicle. If your car is old with high mileage, it likely has a low value to begin. If you wreck your brand-new Ferrari, even a slight fender bender can tank the value of the car. The value of certain types of cars can change every day with supply and demand, so it's important that our independent experts get updated comparable vehicle pricing when looking at your case. Amount of Damage. How much in repairs did your car undergo? If your car only had a scratch that needed to be filled in or a broken window, the value of the car likely doesn't change much at all. The total dollar amount is less important than the actual repairs that were needed to be done. For example, structural damage to your car increases the diminished value more so than cosmetic damages like dents or non-essential part replacements. Location of Vehicle. The car market is always changing. Depending on the resale volume of specific vehicles in certain areas changes the diminished value claim amount. For example, Teslas are extremely common in states like California, but rather hard to come by in more rural areas. Therefore, if you wreck your brand new Tesla in south Georgia, your diminished value claim is likely to be much higher than if you were trying to resell the same car in the metro area. How do the insurance companies come up with their valuation of a diminished value claim? Frankly, the above photo is an insurance adjuster calculating your diminished value amount. As we stated above, they used what is called the 17(c) formula, which is designed to minimize how much they pay in diminished value. It sounds official, but it's a load of garbage. The 17c formula takes 10% of the book value of your car (subjective) and utilizes mileage and damage modifiers which are based on a scale. This is a sample 17c diminished value calculation for a $50,000 vehicle with minor damage and 80,000 miles. $50,000 book value (whatever that means) x 10% is $5,000 x .20 mileage modifier is $1,000 x .25 minor damage modifier = $250 in diminished value. Every 20,000 miles, the insurance companies reduce the decrease in value by 20%. In other words, once you cross the 100,000-mile marker, the insurance companies believe that there is no way your car can have diminished value at all. Think about how crazy that sounds: You have a 2018 Mercedes AMG that you drive all over for work. The car could be worth $75,000.00. You get into a crash with $40,000.00 in repair damages. The insurance companies would say that your car didn't decrease whatsoever. How do we combat this? The insurance companies know that their formula is flawed, they just use it to satisfy a 22-year-old class action lawsuit called Mabry v. State Farm. The way to combat this awful valuation formula is to bring them to court. We hire an expert, take them to court, and expose the formula to a magistrate judge, usually in Gwinnett county (because that's where most insurance companies are incorporated). Give us a call to hear more about the process and how we can maximize your claim!

Almost everyone has been in a car crash and had to get their vehicle repaired. Whether you were at fault, someone else hit you, a tree fell on the car, or any other crazy event that caused damage, you've likely had to visit a repair shop and make an insurance claim. Almost every time a car is repaired from a crash, there is Diminished Value. What actually is Diminished Value? The idea is simple: When you get your car fixed, even if the car was completely repaired, your car has lost value simply because it was in a crash. Imagine you are going to purchase a new car. They show you two vehicles that are seemingly exactly the same. However, when you look at the Carfax, you see that one of them was in a pretty serious wreck and had to get repaired. Obviously, you'd rather have the car that wasn't in the crash. Similarly, if you find a really good deal on a car, there's a good chance that the price is low because the car had been in a previous accident. But do insurance companies actually pay? Insurance companies are required by law to compensate you for the diminished value of your car after a crash. Most of the time, the more serious the damages, and the nicer the vehicle, the higher the diminished value. But it's not that simple. The insurance companies will try everything they can to avoid paying you or to avoid paying you fair value. If insurance companies paid fairly, attorneys wouldn't have jobs in the first place. Unfortunately, it can be extremely time-consuming and tedious to fight with the insurance companies. We at Gastley Law are experienced litigators who have been fighting insurance companies every step of the process. Give us a call for a free case evaluation to let us see if you have a diminished value claim after your car has been in a crash. Call 770-557-2838! What are some common tricks insurance companies use to avoid paying diminished value? The runaround. Insurance companies are professionals at putting you on hold and frankly wasting your time until you give up on the claim. They make it confusing to get ahold of the right person, they don't call you back, and they are only available during normal work hours. Most companies even make you fax them documents. You need a law firm that knows how to work against these companies and navigate their complex phone systems to handle your case quickly. Lowballing. Most people don't even know what diminished value is. The insurance companies frequently will mail you a few hundred dollars as a check and make you think they are doing you a favor. Don't fall for it! Your diminished value claim is worth more than that. Even if you have already cashed the check, give us a call to help. Making you file a lawsuit. Lawsuits are scary. Most people don't know what they are or how to file them on their own. Fortunately, we have gotten the process down to a science so we can quickly file a claim for you. Gastley Law fronts all court costs and appraisal fees so all you have to do is sit back, wait, and let us handle everything on your diminished value claim. Still not sure? Check out our other posts for more detailed and in-depth information about the process.