Great write up...and you hit the nail on the head. I have won 2 diminished value claims in the past 5 years.

NOTE: This does not apply to leased vehicles. Only purchased.

That part is unfortunate...

 

Greetings-
I am a lawyer in PA and I represent claimants in diminished value claims, among others. If you go to my blog, I am describing a case that I am now involved in. For those of you who think these always are easy, that's not true. (www.AlfredAbelLaw.com) It's very rare that a do it yoiurself claimant does as well themselves as they do with an attorney. I know this from the clients that come to my office, and from the appraisers and adjusters that I know. In PA these claims are always made against another driver who caused the accident, and that insurance company has no duty to treat you nicely. Every claim I ever pursued where someone tried it themself first turned out better for them than they did alone. I've also had many cases where someone went to small claims court by themself, won, and then lost on appeal. If you don't want to deal with lawyers, court appearances, the delay of the court system and so on, I don't blame you. But, I have a file several inches thick of cases that came to me to late where the client accepted a low ball offer, or went to court themself and lost, or won at the first trial and lost on appeal. Many insurers are very stubborn about paying out money. If you want to pursue it yourself, good luck. There are some excellent posts here on how to do it.

 

So my car was hit back in December, I'm thinking about filing for this. Do I first have to contact the insurance company first to inform them that I'm claiming it, I know some company will send you a form or whatever, and plus which insurance company do I need to contact? My own or the driver at fault insurance?