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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FullAuto" data-source="post: 4148560" data-attributes="member: 5110">Good luck finding an attorney to handle a property damage claim that small.  You've already settled the injury claim (and left a lot of money on the table) and that's what the attorney would be interested in.If you get a quote from a body shop for $1700 and the insurance writes damage at $1800, you're going to have the shop fix it for $1700 and pocket the additional $100.  Every shop is going to write the damage high.  Because different insurance companies have different repair standards and the shop often doesn't know which company is paying for the damage, they are going to write new OEM parts and their walk in rates.  In reality, the shop is going to use a combination of new OE, recycled OE and aftermarket parts in the repair.  The shop is going to repair at labor rates lower than their walk in rates ALWAYS.  How much lower will depend on the insurer, whether the shop is a DRP for that company, etc.  Again, it's the same principle, if a shop will repair for $55/hr and the insurance pays $60/hr, they lose $5/hr. The insurance likely got photos from the shop and wrote their own $700 estimate off those photos using cheaper parts, lower rates and less repair time.  Again, the shop will bid 8 hours repair to the rear body panel behind the bumper hoping to get 4 hours from the adjuster. If you file against your own insurance, you still aren't going to pocket $1700.  SF will write $1000 and take your deductible out of it.  If you have an accident free discount, you'll lose it at the next 6 month interval when your policy renews.  That's not the same as a rate increase.  Your premium will go up because you lost a discount.  It has nothing to do with it being your fault.  Either you made a claim against your G coverage or you didn't. If the shop wrote $1700 and the insurance wrote $800, 90% of the shops out there will fix it for $1200.  On no planet are you walking away with a $1700 check.  Your biggest mistake was settling the injury for $500 each.  That cost you thousands. I was a State Farm adjuster for a decade, went to the shop side and wrote damage for 2 years and now manage a sublet vendor doing repairs for collision shops.  We're the guys that do all the adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, blind spot calibrations and programming (and diag, wire repair, harness replacement, full mechanical, frame swaps, nitrogen fills, R1234yf, etc.).</blockquote>

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