My car was rear ended in an accident and the at fault insurance company accepted responsibility for the repairs. However the insurance company refused to pay for OEM parts and I do not want after market parts on my car. I have no problem paying for the proper repairs of my car out of my pocket and sue the insurance company to recover the cost. The question is do I have a case in court and will I be able to recover the legal fees on top of the repair amount? Thanks.

You would have to pay all of your attorney fees out of pocket. I doubt any attorney would take the case on a contingency fee because they stand to make little to no money. In Georgia, you would not likely prevail in a claim for your attorney fees.

The long and the short is it's not worth it unless the value of your car will depreciate thousands of dollars (say, well over $5,000) if it is not fixed with factory parts. Think high value cars, way more than a $70,000 car.

Options: Take it to one of their insurance company's preferred body shops. Tell them you want only factory parts. They may be able to convince the adjuster to come out for a revised property damage estimate. More money for factory parts. If their preferred body shop can't get it done, take it to a reputable dealer.

If that doesn't work, file a claim with your insurance company. Your insurance will subrogate, meaning work it out or file suit against the wrongdoer's insurance. Your insurance premium may increase.

Reality: Most people learn that the wrongdoer's insurance company has you over a barrel. They know you will not hire an attorney because of the high expensive with little to no reward.

Hopefully option 1 works out for you. Best of luck.

You might read this to decide whether it might have application to your situation.

Ask if they will agree to LKQ parts instead of aftermarket.

LKQ is "Like Kind and Quality" - think of them as used OEM parts.

99.9% sure no attorney will take a claim for property damage. The short version is - there is no money to be made off of it.

Ask them about paying "Diminution", the reduced value of the car now with damage and none-OEM parts.

What they said.

Without injuries, good luck finding anyone to take your case on contingency. Damages worth trying generally come from the punitive side (pain & suffering) rather than economic (diminution of value, etc.).

How much less do you think the vehicle is worth? The work should still be warrantied for parts & labor.

I might try a small claim on the diminution of value, but you'll probably pay more for the expert opinion you'll need than you'd stand to recover.

Next time, consider letting your insurer handle everything and let them subrogate. That's what you pay them for.

-Rob

My SUV was hit in the rear. I was pulling away after stopping at a stop sign. Half way through the intersection I was slammed by a guy behind me, who was too busy with his phone to even slow down for the stop sign.

He was insured by the gecko. They wanted me to accept aftermarket, third party manufactured parts, and they wanted to provide a sub-compact rental car for my 6'3"

I told their adjuster that my vehicle had GM manufactured parts before their insured rammed into it, and that's what I expected. I also told him that I had purchased an SUV, not a sub-compact, because that's what I needed, and anything less would be unacceptable.

The gecko man balked at this. I gave him two phone numbers and told him to have his supervisor call one of the numbers: my number, if they agreed to my terms, or my lawyer's number if they did not agree with me.

Twenty minutes later, gecko man called me back and told me that they would authorize the use of original, new, GM parts for the repairs, and that Enterprise would contact me to supply an SUV on the gecko's nickel until repairs were completed on my vehicle.

If you can find a dealership from your brand that actually does their own collision work, instead of sourcing it out, you may be able to get oem parts that way.

What kind of car is it?

quote:

Originally posted by kingfish007:
My car was rear ended in an accident and the at fault insurance company accepted responsibility for the repairs. However the insurance company refused to pay for OEM parts and I do not want after market parts on my car. I have no problem paying for the proper repairs of my car out of my pocket and sue the insurance company to recover the cost. The question is do I have a case in court and will I be able to recover the legal fees on top of the repair amount? Thanks.

Are you not insured???
Save yourself the hassle pay your deductible and have your insurance go after them. Get your deductible back after it is settled. That is why you have insurance.

Your insurer can contractually limit you to after-market parts, and probably does. That is, your insurance policy can force you to accept non-original parts as part of the insurance policy you agree to buy.

But the other party's cannot. What they are obliged to do is put you back in the position you were in before. There is an argument that after-market parts are not as good. If you accept non-factory parts, then your diminution claim is bigger. (Insurers will fight you hard on diminution claims. Learn your shit if you go down that road.) If you had a ten year old car with a dented fender when you were in the wreck, your ability to insist on a brand new Chevy fender is probably not so good - you didn't have a brand new Chevy fender to start with.

As many said, this is a claim worth no more than a few thousand dollars. You won't find a contingency fee lawyer to take it, and the costs of bringing it probably exceed its value. Some states have attorney's fees provision in the insurance code, but even still, you will have to pay your lawyer up front and then see if you recover your costs.

Thank you all for your responses. My insurance will replace with OEM parts but I would rather not subrogate due to the risks of my premium going up for something that was not my fault. I am willing to pay the attorney fee up front. My question is what is the chance of me recovering the legal fees in court. Thanks.

your rates shouldn't go up if you claim on your policy and they subrogate to the other carrier, that other carrier will reimburse your firm, they will not be out any funds.

If your coverage will allow OEM then take that route and move on, if they raise your rates, shop them at renewal.

Most policies have provisions that they can use non oem parts in repairs unless you opt for additional coverage that uses OEM...

quote:

Originally posted by kingfish007:
Thank you all for your responses. My insurance will replace with OEM parts but I would rather not subrogate due to the risks of my premium going up for something that was not my fault. I am willing to pay the attorney fee up front. My question is what is the chance of me recovering the legal fees in court. Thanks.

Your rates should not go up.
If they do time to look for a new insurer.

You won't get your fees if you sue the other driver. That is a tort claim for negligence and you don't get your fees in a tort claim. You might get them in an insurance claim, but you can't generally sue the other guys insurer - you don't have a relationship with his insurer.

So, you probably won't get your fees.

Generally speaking, without knowing other facts, disclaimer, disclaimer. You are not my client, this isn't advice to you. Ask your own lawyer.

If you sue the other driver, his insurance co has to defend him. As jhe points out, in a negligence claim, you do not get your attorney fees repaid.

You have the right to select the repair shop. Why not pick one that uses only OEM parts? One operated by the dealer, for example.

DP, sorry, no advice, but hopefully it wasn't your Corvette.

quote:

Originally posted by JJexp:
If you can find a dealership from your brand that actually does their own collision work, instead of sourcing it out, you may be able to get oem parts that way.
What kind of car is it?

That's what I was thinking.
Even if the dealership subs out the work, wouldn't you get factory parts? I have no idea since I haven't had to deal with a crash in decades.

A shop I used many years ago would play their game - get the aftermarket parts, try to fit them, then call the adjuster to show that the fit was not proper. They would always get the OK to order OEM at that point.

Don't know if this is still true, but it IS worth a try. Talk to the shop and see what they say.

quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:
Even if the dealership subs out the work, wouldn't you get factory parts? I have no idea since I haven't had to deal with a crash in decades.

Around here most of the dealers will have contracts with the closest local body shops, who are just independently owned shops. They don’t use oem in most cases, just aftermarket. I learned this when I had to get a rear corner replaced on a wrangler.

Dealer body shops don't always use only OEM parts. If they do insurance work, they'll use after-market parts if required.

I solved the problem by having a car for which there are no after-market body parts. They had to use a factory bumper cover when I was hit by another driver.