Complaint Review: GEICO

Sorry but I am really no more than a regular consumer and can not really give you any official "legal" advice.   I can not really tell you how to prepare for a Jury Trial other than to practice presenting your case.  But that is the same common sense advice I would give you if you were going just in front of a judge.

Yes the Video's should help if you can make them clear as to why it shows the other part was at fault.   I would also plan on bringing the mechanic from the body shop or at least a letter that would justify the $5000 repair bill.

As for the default judgement, again this is something you will need to consult an actual attorney on, as it all depends on how they were served, if you served them correctly. It also could be other situations that they would be allowed more time.

As for if lawyers have any special "in" inside a court.   They may know more of the process, but they should have no special privliedges over you.  But as I said, and I really hope it is this way for you but do not know for sure.  But based on what you have posted it seems as if they are trying to intimidate you by taking it to a level it really didn't need to go to.  So hopefully the judge will give you a lot of leeway and perhaps even some guidence if he/she sees you going down the wrong path.  Also, if this is really in front of a jury, it would really be bad form for the other attorney to attack you and make an appearance that they are just trying to intimidate you, as that could turn them into your favor.

You have said that you can't get a attorney to represent you because of the low amount and no injuries.  But you may want to see if you can find an attorney to give you a consultation for an hour or two where they could guide you in how you should proceed.  They may be able to give you specific sections of law or regulations that would help you out.  They may also have some pointers as to how to handle the case.

Thank you for helping.

In Texas the Texas insurance law gives the right to take the car to our shop. You know insurances are cheap when it comes to pay for anything and they rarely will pay for everything they have been paid for their clients. On May 2017 GEICO denied to pay for my car repairs. On May 2017, I took my car for repairs to Sterling McCall toyota for an estimate and repairs. They told me that GEICO was not going to pay. What was I going to do? The Estimator told me that I had to pay. I decided to wait and wait and wait till I had enough. On June 2017 I took my car back and paid for the repairs and later sue the Defendant because GEICO refused to pay.  I sued GEICO's client on July 27,2017.  

GEICO's Adjuster is claiming that I was way over charged over 1500 dollars by Sterling McCall Toyota. I do not agree with that because they have a reputation to keep and they restored my car to the previous way it was.

GEICO's client failed to file on time and I filed for Judgment by default but because they paid for the jury trial and requested it my Motion for judgment by default was denied. I do  not know if I will have a chance to request my motion for judgment by default during the jury trial or not.

Thank you for your input and help. I will prepare for the jury trial.

Do you know if I am going to have any problems because in the case is me and my wife against GEICO lawyer representing their client?

Sincerely,

Roberto Espinosa

rgespinosa2012@gmail.com

The correct date for the Jury Trial is December 06, 2017 not 9th.

Yes, there is a Jury Trial in Texas and the Texas Small Court is allowing the GEICO lawyer to represent the Defendant Despite that Plaintiff filed for Judgment by Default because Defendant and GEICO lawyer failed to file within 10 days that the Tex. Civ. Proc Allows them to answer.  I filed on July 27 and served them on July 27. Defendant received small claim court by July 30, and they should have answered the latest by August 10, 2017. GEICO attorney filed answer August 16, 2017. 

Yes, Texas allows the right to take the car to a shop of our choice. Where can I check if the insurance law in texas allows only one estimate?

You are right about the two issues in my case.  the issue about justify the cost as being required OEM vs aftermarket plus add discovered damage.  I can only say that if GEICO client broke an OEM part, they should pay for an OEM part. It is not GEICO car it is somebodyelse car. The other issue about the Police Report is real but not so because the Police gave the case to the investig. Department and the Police Investigator investigated. The Plaintiffs had the right of way on the intersection and there was a stop sign on the other street. Besides, the Plaintiffs car was hit on the rear driver side. It is obvious that  if the other party had made the stop she would not have to run and hit the Plaintiffs car.

Besides that, the other party runned away from the accident cite.  I have photos I took before and after the crash.

I also have two videos one and a  half minutes long of the road I took and the road the other party took. Will that help?

I will appreciate your input and help thank you. I have an idea how to prepare for the jury trial. I will prepare for the Jury Trial and give my best.  

Do you know if Lawyers have special privileges in Courts? in this court they enter like if it was their home. 

Roberto

rgespinosa2012@gmail.com

December 9th is a Saturday and in addtion to never hearing of a Jury Trial for a Small Claims case, I have never heard courts
working on Weekends. If you are in Small claims, again if you sued the individual it sounds outside of Standard Procedure to allow an attorney to represent them.  So before you do anything else you need to contact the Clerk of the Court where you filed the suit and find out the current status.

Now, if you are still in Small Claims, you will be in front of either a judge or an court appointed arbitrator. They will have at least reviewed your case, and most of the "hearing" will consist of them asking you to just tell your story and then having them ask a few questions. If the entire hearing takes more than 30 minutes I would be shocked.

The fact that you took it to a repair facility of your choice and only had one estimate "should" not be an issue as in most States (I believe TX is one) allow you to take it to any facility of your choice and do not require multiple estimates. The only issue here is you may have to justify the extra cost as being required(I.E. OEM vs. Aftermarket, Additional Discovered Damage...etc).

But you may have an issue with the police report. You state that the police report said the other party was at fault, but you also stated the police had no one available to come to the accident site. Those two statements can't both be true. The police can not make a legitimate determination of responsibility if they did not visit the site.  All of their information would be based on witness statements and those are not always reliable. This is probably a primary reason that GEICO changed their attitude, and it may not be something you should rely on. Hopefully you have witnesses for your side. If you do be sure they are with you. You may also want to work up a board of the "scene" being able to show the events in a more visual way.

As a Side Note, if by some chance you now have a Jury Trial, this could be done as a way to intimidate you and cause you to drop it, and based on this post it sounds like it may be working.  I am just saying don't let it do that.  Still go through with it.  I could almost guarantee you that for this amount of money the judge will probably not be too happy with the other side and know that you are not an attorney.  So they will probably give you a bit more slack than they would give normal attornies.  Also, a jury may actually be more sympathetic to you if they feel that you are just being bullied.  But even if you do lose, you walk out still out the $5000 but with an experience not many regular people get to do.

Good Luck

First, I've never heard of a jury trial in a small claims court case.  Normally, you will have a judge who will rule on your case, but that's beside the point.  If the facts of your case are as you say, then I think the judge will rule GEICO is going to owe you some money, however the $2,000 they offered might be what you end up with.  The biggest problem you have is in the situation you described, you were required to take the car to their recommended shop.  Once you did that, GEICO took the position you were not interested in them paying to fix the car.  That's going to be a real problem for you.

What I suspect they may do, is present what the cost of repairing the car would have been, had you taken the car to the shop they designated for you to go; in fact I would get that information prior to going to court.  I don't know what your body shop did to repair your car, but I suspect GEICO will have their body shop quote the price to repair your car with parts that are not OEM, cut the labor cost, and really low-ball the quote.  I mean you can argue this situation is exactly why you took your car elsewhere, but you broke a major rule in not taking the car to the shop they recommended.  Now it doesn't mean the body shop they got the quote from would have completely screwed you over with non-OEM parts.  But they're looking to minimize liability and once you reject the deal, the price will start going down from $2,000.  Unfortunately, you opened the door by not taking the car to their designated shop.

The important thing when they present evidence is for you to make sure they provide an apples-to-apples comparison.  The judge may not care whether it's a complete apples to apples - hoping it's close.  Once you receive the evidence of a quote from the other body shop before trial, take it to your body shop guy for analysis, and perhaps you can negotiate some more prior to the court date and settle because you're allowed to do that as well.

Best of luck...