SettlementCentral.com The Online Resource for Personal Injury Claims

Volume 4 Issue 04

In this issue March 2007

Your Guide to Caring for Your Damged Vehicle After an Auto Accident

• What should you do about your damaged vehicle immediately after the accident?
• How to select the best auto body shop
• Rental car rights
• When to hire a collision repair specialist

Settle-It-Yourself Newsletter

Hello!! Welcome to the March edition of Settlement Central’s Newsletter. We are pleased to share this newsletter with you, as our business is helping people get satisfactory settlements for their personal injury claims.

This is the last in our series of three newsletters that deal with property damage issues. Now we can return to the personal injury insurance claim topics some of you have been asking about.

But first, let’s consider where we have been in the last two Settle-It-Yourself Newsletters. The first topic was all about Diminished Value claims: for example, when your vehicle suffers a significant loss in actual cash value notwithstanding the completion of repairs.

The second Newsletter topic was in the form of a comprehensive guide through the sometimes complicated and mysterious collision repair (or replacement) process;

In this third Settle-It-Yourself Newsletter dealing with property loss and collision repair issues, we will show you how to make arrangements soon after the accident to cut off storage yard costs and to rent a replacement. Then we will show you how to protect your investment through intelligent use of professional services. In other words: why an expert in auto collision work might be a good idea to oversee the repair process.

As always, we will post our articles on our website as they are sent out in the Settle-It-Yourself Newsletter. Our readers will have a rich resource available to them, our hands-on battles with the insurance companies translate into useful and accurate information for our readers.

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First, we will take a look at how to save on storage costs assessed against your impounded vehicle, how to select an auto body shop, and how to secure a rental car. The reason these topics are so important is because unless you know and exercise your rights soon after the accident, you may find some real expenses coming your way.

For example, most of us would assume that if our vehicle were rendered undriveable, it would just sit at the body shop awaiting repairs. But many times the vehicle ends up at a storage yard, where it will be assessed storage charges of around $30 to $50 PER DAY! Sometimes the storage yard is located on the same property as an auto body shop. If you end up using that shop, they will waive all but three days of storage costs.

But if you want to take your vehicle elsewhere, you could end up facing storage costs of many hundreds of dollars. Who will pay that bill? The insurance adjuster will try to wiggle out by accepting liability for only three days, claiming that any delay in moving your car after that is your fault and responsibility.

See the full page discussion via the link below for more on selecting a collision repair facility and how to avoid over-billing on your rental car.

Second, we will get into the topic of protecting your investment by hiring someone who KNOWS the collision repair business. What makes us think that we who work in an office can have any competency in negotiating for repairs, in supervising the actual work, or in inspecting the finished product?

With the high price of vehicles these days, it would seem prudent to spend a few hundred bucks in order to protect the value of what is likely your biggest personal property asset.

YOU NEED to read this page and consider hiring an expert in these cases:
There are three specific areas where an expert in collision repair work could be used effectively. These are: 1) in the event of significant damage to your vehicle in terms of structural, mechanical, or electronic damages; 2) if your vehicle has a significant actual cash value; and 3) if there is the possibility of a Diminished Value claim because of the loss in resale value owning to the repairs.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: What should you do about your damaged vehicle immediately after the accident? Where should you take it, and how do you best get a rental vehicle? Please click on the following link- http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0458.htm

NEXT: We have prepared some background on why one might want to spend a few hundred dollars on an expert to assist with collision repair. Read more here- http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0457.htm

Thank you for your interest in our site, we hope you will find us to be an excellent source for your own personal injury needs.

Doctor Settlement
Publisher, Settle-It-Yourself Newsletter

SettlementCentral.Com has a wealth of information and special tips for members who wish to arm themselves with the best advice for dealing with insurance companies. Our Negotiation section is filled with fresh and effective ideas on how to approach a company to ensure a successful settlement of your case.
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Print out a copy of our FREE Car Accident Form to put in your glove compartment. Download it here:
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About SettlementCentral.com
http://www.settlementcentral.com/
SettlementCentral.Com, Inc. is a Washington corporation providing general educational information, online, to personal injury victims throughout the United States on how to manage their own personal injury claims through the settlement process—from gathering the necessary information (evidence) to submitting claims and demand letters, through engaging in successful personal injury settlement negotiations with insurance companies. Our online instructions and self-help forms and letters are designed to make for easy insurance claims settlements in the areas of auto accidents, pedestrian accidents, dog bites, vicious animal bites, premises liability, and slip and fall accidents.

Contact Information
Your comments and suggestions are welcome! Tell us what topics you would like to see discussed in this newsletter and we will do our best to bring you current useful information. Write to us at: info@SettlementCentral.com

Here are three topics we are considering for our next issue that deal with important issues in any personal injury insurance claim. If you like any of these, then let us know—or make up your own topic regarding issues about your own claim, and send it to us using the e-mail address above, and we may use it.

• Subrogation: what happens when your own insurer wants to take money right off the top of your insurance claim settlement to repay itself for monies advanced by it in payment of your medical bills?
• Head injury—concussion—loss of consciousness—post-concussive syndrome.
• Pre-existing injury defense. What if your accident caused a dormant condition to “light-up” and you now suffer a lot more pain than you did before the accident?