A useful politician.

[Jesda]

State Senator John Loudon (R)'s office called me back today. I called and emailed yesterday asking about the repairs on the BMW and how I felt, under the law, it should be totaled, and how I thought the car wasn't going to be structurally sound because it was a convertible.

The guy listened to me and said he'd investigate and call back.

Who knows if he'll actually make a difference, but at least the guy at the senator's office offered to look into it.

[Jesda]

Holy crap, the state of MO responds fast.

The senator's office called the insurance commission who called me, then a friendly person there offered to take my complaint and "light a fire" under the insurance company if I wasn't being treated fairly.

Just... wow.

[96Qowner]

Damn nice!

Of course, State Senators have more time and interest in assisting random constituents.

Local government is better. Duh. Such a concept, eh?

[AZhitman]

Why wouldn't you go straight to the insurance commission?

[C-Kwik]

Holy crap, the state of MO responds fast.

The senator's office called the insurance commission who called me, then a friendly person there offered to take my complaint and "light a fire" under the insurance company if I wasn't being treated fairly.

Just... wow.

I don't know the specifics of power your insurance commission has in your state, but generally speaking, insurance commisioners don't have any power over any decisions made by the insurance company. That's the court's jurisdiction (by trial). Departments of Insurance are there to make sure insurance companies follow the rules for fair and ethical claims practices.

And if you decided to take the issue to court, you likely have some hoops to jump through. Namely, an arbitration process. The contract (your policy) is written in such a way that court won't be the first step towards resolvement as your part of the agreement is that you don't file suit against your own insurance company until certain requirements are met.

The way to handle this is to make technical arguments about the safety of the vehicle with regards to cost. Since a total loss is generally defined as the cost of repairs being more than the net cost to total a vehicle (value of undamaged vehicle less value of the salvage), then you have to present the argument in terms of the damage. Technically, every car can be repaired to same specs as the factory. Or to be more specific, you could theoretically replace every part in the vehicle and it would end up as safe as it was when it was new. THIS is what makes it a difficult argument. Even if some of the parts were repaired, the burden is still on you to prove the repair is unsafe.

Short of that, I think you might find it difficult to change their minds. Especially since making an exception for one person without good cause opens up a coverage issue for every other person they insure. All they need is someone to file a suit, subpeona all relevant case files and find even just one of these for it to be used against them in a bad faith lawsuit in a case where they made a decision to total a car under similar circumstances. The squeaky wheel effect is more limited with insurance companies because of the potential legal issues involved. Add into it that a bad faith suit can be decided based on a company's finances rather than the actual damages (it can settle in the millions for a relatively small amount of damage) and the stakes become high enough that pleasing a customer might have to get thrown out the door. Not trying to discourage you, but you should know what you are up against.

[Jesda]

Why wouldn't you go straight to the insurance commission?

It was a State Senate bill that changed the vehicle salvage value from 75 to 80%, so I asked for an explanation.

Then from there they asked about my case and suggested what to do next. Then even called again to follow up and make sure the lady from the insurance commission called me to give a satisfactory solution.

No fumbling through mo.gov or calling Jeff City trying to fax and download forms and such. No being on hold and jumping through hoops. Just simple clear and concise direction to help me deal with the government.

That is, in part, what I pay Mr Loudon to do, and his staff did a great job.

[AZhitman]

Gotcha - Well-done, then.

[srellim234]

Send Rep. Loudon out here; California wil cure him in a hurry of actually thinking about the people instead of himself. He's ruining the reputation of politicians everywhere.