[s-cars] Ever heard of this? - Lower control arm & science

[Daniel Hussey]

Well said Scott.

Regardless of everything, once you accept a check for settlement from
insurance, you cannot sue over the same incident.  If you do, the insurnace
company can sue you and recoup thier losses.  It is THIER right to that
money, not yours once you accept settlement.  In this case, as unfortunate
as it was, no one was hurt and only some damage to cars, so I would
reccomend trying to get as much as you can for your S-car in settlement (you
should be able to get close to what you paid for it if you can back up with
bill of sale since it was a very recent purchase) and avoid any sort of
legal dispute.

Legal battles are never fun for anyone involved, and I'd reccmend avoiding
them if possible.  No need to make any more lawyers rich.  This is what
insurance is for.

Ok, since I'm not a lawyer, I'll do my best at a disclaimer...  I am not a
blood-sucking leach, and therefore this is not intended to be legal advice,
merely an opinion.

Later,
Dan
'95 S6 Avant (Europa/ecru)
'87 Jeep Cherokee 4x4 (aka "ski bitch")
Seattle, WA

----- Original Message -----
From: <QSHIPQ at aol.com>
To: <dburig at igsenergy.com>; <divad at rcn.com>; <robert at s-cars.org>
Cc: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 9:21 AM
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Ever heard of this? - Lower control arm & science


My father used to do accident reconstruction and analysis for accident
investigations (and he had scrabble abrevs after his engineering doctorate
as well).  I used to be transfixed with the stories and learned well the
problem with these "chases" are a couple fold.

First, these engineering places are expensive.  Usually used by insurance
companies when facing huge liability losses (i.e. wrongful death cases).  In
the case of a couple of sheet metal repairs or even a sheet metal total (esp
on an audi), the insurance company won't be doing a damn thing other than
writing a ck.  JUST the procedures to figure out how to test this component
will probably cost more than the total outlay of this claim.

Second, IF anyone wants to pursue this investigation privately, then all
related expenses are theirs until liability or payment is made.  Years in
many cases, AND you can't do a darn thing with the car until the case is
settled.  The insurance company <all> usually has some fine print as to
maximum time to claim, which will expire during your private chase.  The
rate of return and risk of none, pretty much makes this a no brainer.

Third, IF you get paid by the insurance company, you are no longer an
interested party.  IOW, you accept the payout by the insurance company, the
car is theirs.  As such, you can't claim interest in any further action,
unless the insurance company is on your side.  Even then, insurance company
lingo usually includes a clause in the payout that specifically eliminates
you from collecting on any action they may pursue.

Fourth, suing without actual significant damages, is hardly self serving,
and any attorney will chase this "cause" at your expense, but ask them what
they think first.

I'm looking at this whole thing and thinking sh*t happened, and insurance is
for exactly that.  More than insurance?  Best of luck, that's a train well
routed into your wallet, and it's gonna cost you more than peace of mind.

My advice?  Get the documented value of your car as high as you can, print
off receipts, overvalued marketplace ads for like cars, and get the best
reasonable settlement you can from the insurance company.  And don't forget
to take the family to church next Sunday, the audi gods were most kind
considering what "might" have happened.

Scott Justusson


In a message dated 5/5/2003 10:21:46 AM Eastern Standard Time,
dburig at igsenergy.com writes:

> and your
> family are well.
> Another thought into the fray...
> In a previous life, one of my customers was the Battelle Memeorial
Institute
> www.battelle.org. They do engineering and design work for every imaginable
> industry.  (Food, Military, Automotive,etc.)  Anywho, one of the projects
> they worked on was establishing the cause of the failure of
> the cabin door
> that
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