August 6, 2018—A Missouri judge awarded The Collision Company the repair cost in a case against GEICO insurance.
In June 2018, Brad Buck, owner of The Collision Company in Kirksville, Mo., went to court after filing a lawsuit against GEICO insurance.
The judge's decision came last week, Buck says, when the judge awarded the shop the entire repair cost of $7,071.30. The judge did not award the storage and administrative charges of $3,125.
"I was a little disappointed about not getting those charges but its still a pretty big win for us," Buck said.
The shop's final bill for the repair was approximately $16,753 and the vehicle was stored by the shop for 21 days.
Buck said he does not think this will be the last time the shop is in court with GEICO because they have several other claims in which the insurance company shorted the customer.
Buck said he filed the lawsuit in January 2018, after the shop faced a $10,000 deficit from an estimate that GEICO would not pay.
Last November, a customer's vehicle had been rear-ended by a GEICO insured and GEICO sent an adjuster to perform an estimate on the vehicle. Buck said the GEICO estimate came out to approximately $3,000.
The customer brought a copy of the estimate with her when she dropped the vehicle off and signed the shop's initial paperwork to start the repair process.
After the vehicle went through the shop's disassembly process, the damage report from the shop outlined repairs would cost roughly $13,000. The shop submitted the damage report along with photos, a "Notification of Repairs" document, a "Notice of Deficiency in Insurance Appraisal" document and other supporting documents from the OEM.
After the GEICO adjuster came back to the store to reinspect the vehicle with his supervisor, they briefly inspected the vehicle and then left an estimate for roughly $3,000 and a check. Buck looked into legal action. He said the customer was in a rental car for a few weeks and eventually the insurance company stopped paying for rental car coverage despite the vehicle repairs not being done. So, Buck filed suit against the insurance company.
