Small Claims Court limit here is $5,000 so I'm seeking the maximum amount. And no, the time I spend preparing my case will not come close to $2,500 in value. By the time we go to court on January 11th, I'll probably have between 8 and 10 hours of my time tied up in preparation and practice. But I do it all in my spare time and believe it or not, I enjoy it....

 

If its any consolation, GEICO didn't stand behind me at all when I got into a bender which I was at worst 50% to blame for and at best not at all to blame. I left them, went to Liberty and have been happy ever since.

 

Not only did GEICO not stand behind me when I was in a little bender, they raised my rates coincidentally the exact same amount they paid out to the guy I hit in the parking lot, who was at least equally at fault. I left them, promptly. It turned out Liberty Mutual was cheaper than GEICO, even when considering the fender bender, Liberty gave me a better rate than GEiCO charged before the accident, and did it post the accident. I will never insure with GEICO again.

And they had the nerve to send a letter to me, because we had the former military discount, "thanking me for my service to my country" and it was written by some retired Colonel they have on the payroll to write letters to people fro the military who leave their company, to try to convince them to come back.

This really chapped my wife's hide. Why? I wasn't in the military. SHE WAS! She was in the Navy, and I was a long-haired, tye-dyed pot-smokin' hippy who couldn't even get drafted for all the party drugs I used 25+ years ago, yet GEICO sends a letter TO ME as a former vet.

We kept it somewhere as a token of GEICO's esteem.

I just read the rest of this thread, and didn't realize the heck they are putting this guy through when I made my first reply. I guess I was right, GEICO did at least not support their insured driver, and they probably jacked his rates up by thousands and thousands of dollars. Mine went up $1751 a year after my bender, a very minor one at that, so I got quotes elsewhere and saved $2200 a year (based on the new rate from GEICO) by switching to Liberty.

 

jon89

Any updates on the *******s over at Geico aka Scam-Co.

 

As previously mentioned, my case goes to court on January 11th. I don't expect any additional offers from Geico to settle prior to court. So it's don the battle armor, sharpen up the swords, and charge full-speed into the fray....

 

Well, the big showdown against Geico is nearly upon us. We head to court on Monday afternoon. Just got off the phone with my appraiser - we've settled on the final version of my opening statement (now down to a clear-and-concise single page), he supplied me with a list of questions to ask Geico's appraiser designed to shoot holes in his measly $2,500 diminished value figure, and he prepared a spreadsheet showing actual diminished values for S-Types involved in accidents requiring high-dollar repairs and then sold during the past five years here in the southeastern U.S. Very impressive....

Nothing to do now but relax, stay cool calm and collected, enjoy the process, and see how the judge decides to rule....

 

Little guy vs. big bad insurance co.? My money is on the judge ruling in your favor. Good luck.

 

Jon, Best of Luck today!!!!!!!

 

Rick,

Thanks for the good wishes. I'll be heading downtown in about an hour. I'll huddle up with my appraiser for about 30 minutes before we step into the courtroom so we can review our strategy one last time (and add his magic-bullet spreadsheet to our bevy of evidence). It's just the two of us against whatever army Geico decides to bring to the table. I think we're well-prepared, and he thinks we're going to steamroll Geico with our combined documentation. Nothing left to do except deliver a convincing performance....

 

 

Update:

I really enjoyed my Small Claims Court experience yesterday. It was great fun having to correct the local attorney that Geico hired on dates, road names, the accident scenario, etc. etc. etc. It was almost as if he didn't bother to review the facts of the case until 15 minutes prior to court going into session. First, he attempted to shift the blame of the August 3rd accident to me. I quickly stopped that attempt by producing a letter from Geico's corporate headquarters accepting responsibility for their insured driver being at fault in the accident. Next, he attempted to discredit my appraiser's experience and qualifications. So my appraiser spent a full 10 minutes going over his credentials, training, experience, and history (including producing his diplomas, certificates, awards, etc. for the judge to review). The judge seemed duly impressed. Finally, the attorney moved to have the case thrown out without ever clearly specifying the reasons for doing so. The judge denied that attempt within two seconds after the attorney filed it at the judge's bench. Perhaps that is simply standard procedure because the attorney showed no reaction to the judge's denial....

So the bottom line is that I won, our preparation and documention made all the difference, and the judge proclaimed that Geico has 10 days to pay me in full. Given my experience dealing with Geico over these past 5+ months, I expect them to drag their feet up until the very last minute, so the saga continues. I won't consider this case resolved until Geico's check is safely deposited in my S-Type Maintenance Fund Money Market Account....

 

Congradulations Jon! Atleast you can chill the bottle of Dom Perignon and hopefully pop the cork in 10 days.

 

Way to go Jon! I'm glad to hear that everything worked out OK. Kind of wonder about the business sense of GEICO though. It would have been cheaper to just pay you what you were entitled instead of dicking around.

Mike

 

This was a great story and excellent job on preparing and winning your court case. Since we both live in NC I will have to keep you in mind if I ever have anything similar happen to me, especially your appraiser’s name.

 

Yea! Way to go! Congrats on the victory!

Now....Wanna represent me against Chrysler??? LOL Just kidding. I came across a letter yesterday that just pissed me off. There is a known issue with the front impact sensors on their mini-vans. They had the moxie to tell the NHTSA in a letter that since there are no accidents and/or deaths that they feel they are not responsible to replace the faulty sensors....Yikes! My point..Good for you for holding a big corporation responsible for their obligations.

 

Thanks guys. The process took quite a while but I strongly felt that it was the right thing to do and that it would pay off in the end.

Mike, I started telling Geico in late September that from a financial perspective it would be far less costly to them if they would simply meet my Diminished Value terms and pay up without forcing me to take them to court. For two full months I continued to tell them this in multiple telephone conversations as well as e-mails. They chose to call my bluff because from what I've learned, 98% of the folks in my position never follow through to the end of the process. They eventually cave and accept a lower settlement offer because they fear going to court and losing. But I saw it from a completely different perspective since I knew my case was very solid and I also truly believed that I would have a great deal of fun going against "The Man". And I did....

 

Congratulations, Jon. Job well done. I'm sure everyone here really appreciates the work and effort you went thru, I know I do. My one accident (13 years ago) it was the other drivers fault, he had a .075 bac and no insurance. I filed small claims papers on him for some repairs to my car and just after that he filed bankruptcy. I learned a lot from that...won't happen again.

 

Awesome news, Jon. Congrats on the court victory. I guess you can change the title of your thread to "Our S-Type Got Hit...I fought in Court Geico and Won". It was a pleasure following your thread, especially with the happy ending.

 

Attafreakingboy! I love it when an insurance company/attorney gets what they deserve!

 

HOORAY!! Very well done.

You can probably enforce in some scary ways if they don't pay