aftermarket parts

[really odd]

has any one heard of supreme court case ,state or federal starting today about insurance co. use & misuse of aftermrkt parts

[Zep33]

Sounds interesting - have a link?

[really odd]

there was a short mention on ABC News last nite
really lacked any depth that's why I wondering if anyone has heard anything else

[MR GOODWRENCH]

Only news I've recently heard pertains to parts price-fixing allegations involving some major OEM suppliers. Stay tuned....

[Denise Trimble]

6/23/2012 www dot Michiganautolaw dot com
Refers to the fact OEM is safer that aftermarket, but insurance companies Refuse to use it.

It cost AM FAM Ins. $17m

[SirRon]

State Farm lost a big case using aftermarket parts. But it was in 1999. Can't post link so just google "state farm aftermarket parts lawsuit".

[CMayne]

While not totally related to the topic, this is the latest update on "State Farm Ins" from Body Shop News:
PartsTrader Suit 5/27/2014

The Eaves Law Firm has filed a request to consolidate all the recent suits filed by different states against multiple insurers for short pays, tortious interference and other offenses to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi for "coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings."

“Multidistrict litigation brings all these cases together for pre-trial handling,” explained Allison Fry, attorney with Eaves Law Firm. “We are looking for uniformity to bring identical cases to put before one judge.”

The complaint at the heart of this action was filed Jan. 7, 2014, in the U.S. District Court of Mississippi, Northern Division-Jackson for the state of Mississippi.The goal was to prevent State Farm from forcing shops in that state to use PartsTrader, and also to recover monies for short pays and procedures not paid for by insurers who "unjustly enriched themselves." Defendants named included: State Farm; Progressive; Allstate; Nationwide; GEICO; United Services Automobile Association; USAA; Safeco; Shelter Mutual Insurance Co.; Direct General Insurance Company of Mississippi; Mississippi Farm Bureau; and Shelter General.

Since then, five states – Mississippi, Florida, Utah, Tennessee and Indiana – have gotten involved in the action and the call for the multi-district litigation.

The filing read, “Since January 2014, five essentially identical causes of action have been filed on behalf of plaintiff auto body shops against numerous automobile insurers relating to the insurers' intentional refusal to fully and fairly compensate Plaintiffs for all work performed in repairing vehicles for which the defendants are responsible for payment, improperly and intentionally suppressing labor rates, steering and violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The actions have been brought by numerous plaintiffs and are presently pending before five different district courts in different states (Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, Florida and Indiana.)"

[Mike Nicholes]

C.Mayne's brief on this problem was right on spot. I have spoken, at length, with the attorney at Eaves Law Firm, who is spearheading this problem with the insurance companies calling the shots on quality, pricing, ad naseum; where parts are used in body shops, usually the independant ones. There are also some occurances of this activity that reach into the body shops run and attached to dealerships. In my opinion, it is a 'price grab' by a "big gorilla" in the house and is wrong. the eventual warranty and liability problems that can occur will affect the body shop (private or dealership) without any culpability on the Insurance company who forces the issue. The action is brief, but not easy; one does not let the insurance company dictacte quality or source of parts unless the body shop want to assume all potential liability for the part and it's consequences in the future.

If any of you that read the forum has information that you want to keep confidential, yet let the attorneys who are "defendiing" our practices, know about it; you may forward the data to me at miknik@aol.com and I will forward it to them without a paper trail to you. Sometimes the Big Gorilla oversteps the bounds of good and ethical business and this, in my opinion, is one of those times.

Mike Nicholes