He also revealed in an interview after the forum that despite his ongoing lawsuit against Progressive for tortuous interference and defamation of character, that the insurance company is once again doing business with his shop in Bedford Hills, N.Y. Customers with damaged cars who are insured by Progressive are once again bringing their cars to his shop for repairs.
As told to him by a Progressive employee, “Progressive does not have a network of shops in New York anymore, so the intense steering they practiced in this area has subsided,” Coccaro said. “I’m now repairing cars for Progressive’s customers once again.”
This despite the fact that Coccaro sued Progressive in 2007 for tortuous interference and defamation of character. Those charges followed a lawsuit filed by Progressive in 2005 against Coccaro and his shop for fraud. The case was dismissed in 2008 when a judge ruled Progressive did not have enough evidence.
Progressive appealed that decision and Coccaro was found not guilty of fraud in December 2010. Progressive said in December 2011 it would not further appeal the case.
But the court battles and attorney fees took a serious toll, costing him about $500,000 in legal fees to defend his name and his shop’s reputation. He hopes to be able to recover his losses due to the causes of action in his lawsuit against Progressive.
“We should be getting a court date in two months, but that’s hard to tell,” Coccaro said. “These things seem to take forever.”
Coccaro said the court battles with Progressive were stressful and expensive.
“I didn’t do this to change the industry,” Coccaro said. “I did it to protect my livelihood and to protect my good name. When we sued Progressive I started getting e-mails from all over the world – phone calls and e-mails – that were heartbreaking. Repairers said they were getting pushed out of business by steering and unfair insurer practices. I began to think maybe this can help change things and that I can’t lose this lawsuit.”
He does not recommend other shops follow his difficult path.
“The power, money and might that Progressive has is incredible and to go up against them was unnerving,” he said. “But I’m stubborn and I don’t like to be pushed around and falsely accused.”
Coccaro said in his case against them they took depositions from all his current employees, his customers with Progressive insurance and interviewed many of his former employees, trying to find one who would say negative things about Coccaro and his business.
“Even a former employee who I had to fire said he would bring his car to my shop to get it repaired,” he said. “I’ve been in business for 40 years and I don’t have a single Department of Motor Vehicle violation against my shop license. I’ve never been taken to small claims court in 40 years.
“It took five years and two trials and we won in December 2010 by a jury trial,” he said. “It cost $500,000 to prove I did nothing wrong.”
Coccaro said he recommends that repairers keep detailed repair records in case they ever have to defend themselves in court.
“The car we were sued over had over 200 parts replaced costing about $15,000 in parts alone. The total repair was over $34,000 due to the extensive damage. It’s challenging to keep perfect records on every repair, but make sure you shore up all your paperwork. If you don’t explain everything in an invoice, they will pick you apart in court.”
