June 14, 2013—State Farm Insurance has been ordered to pay more than $83,000 in legal fees to Ray Gunder, owner of Gunder’s Auto Center in Lakeland, Fla., for two short-pay lawsuits filed against the company.
State Farm will pay Gunder $76,157 in legal fees for one lawsuit, and $7,250 for the other lawsuit—total reimbursement of roughly $83,400.
“The extensive fees were incurred due to the substantial time our attorney invested to research and combat State Farm’s initial efforts to defend against the short-pay lawsuits and their efforts to discourage and stop me,” Gunder said. “We didn’t do it alone. Besides having a great legal counsel, we had the ongoing financial and moral support of many repairers and friends across the country.”
Gunder said he still has other ongoing lawsuits filed against State Farm that are moving through the court process.
“We’ve hung in there because we knew we were right and to blaze a trail up that mountain so other repairers wouldn’t have to make the significant investment we did,” Gunder said. “The path is now clear and easy to navigate.”
