No but you can get a CT Scan.

Oh come on I love that joke and yes to me it is funny.

One area many people have questions about are property damage claims. These claims arise from accidental, fires, commercial construction defects, storms including lightning, hail, water, floods, freezing, thawing and may include broken glass, stolen property and a host of other casualty risks. I’ve started a section on the law firm’s website for answering questions and providing links to various articles and news stories that discuss property damage.

I thought is was important to include this section on property damage claims and how to get paid after it's damaged or destroyed since most people would rather award damages for a press than pain and suffering. (Cough-cough Mike.)

This isn’t an area of the law most lawyers gravitate too naturally. That’s because most property damage claims are not significant from a monetary standpoint. Some are, like having a $3 million building burn to the ground due to negligent construction workers hired by a subcontractor. Some property damage claims are just a bent fender that leads to a loss of use and diminished sale value at a much later date. Assuming the car isn’t totaled the loss of value for an expensive car, SUV, truck or a motorcycle can be significant and can’t be ignored by the owner.

At one time I owned Porsches; I just liked them – it goes back to being poor and making model race cars as a teenager. One of those cars, had been in an accident, not much of an accident really, just surface scratches but the cost to repair it exceeded $5,000 and required the title to be branded. Even though the car was repaired like new, that accident diminished the value by $5,000.  At the time of the accident I wasn’t the owner, I bought the car and discounted the purchase price due to the branded title and knowing how it’s value would be perceived if I wanted to sell it. As you can plainly see that’s not chicken feed. $5k is $5k. Can you imagine the dimished value of a more expensive car?

In another case for a client, the owner had two-weeks previous to the accident purchased the car brand new for $90,000. The insurance company said, hey we are going to fix it. And they could because the cost to repair wasn’t anything close to being $90,000. But what about the loss of value to the owner on resale or trade-in? Of course that would be a huge drop in trade-in value or resale value and must be taken into consideration. This is just one example.

Another area is livestock mortality insurance. Some people will find  this hard to believe but a good show cow, a bull or a horse can make thousands of dollars for the owner. So what is lifestock mortality insurance? It’s sort of like life insurance on your cattle and horses. If the animal dies from an accident, a disease or an illness the insurance pays off to the livestock owner. Although people think of their pets as more than just property, the law doesn’t. So normally animal injuries or death cases are confined to the value of the pet to the owner; pain, suffering and emotional damages being ignored by the law. That being what it is, it’s usually what you paid for the animal or what it makes for you economically; such as a racehorse or stud service. Great American sells this kind of insurance as does State Farm and most major insuers.

There are farm claims for machinery like tractors, skid loaders, combines, discs and other farm implements destroyed or damaged by an accident and these require someone with knowledge of the value of it post accident; damaged, but repaired equipment. So stay friendly with your local implement dealer, you never know when you’ll need their opinion sometime in the future, about value.

If you have a property damage claim and don’t mind sharing your story I’d like to invite email with questions, comments and stories about property damage claims.  Property damage claims section on the Lombardi Law Firm website.

For good advice see a lawyer and if you have questions about this blog, the law or your case write or call me directly. Steve Lombardi, sdlombardi@aol.com and 515-222-1110.