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If a vehicle has been damaged in a collision, the appropriate insurance company pay for the repairs. Sometimes, owners feel cheated by the fact that the repaired vehicle has suffered a loss in its value. When that happens, the unhappy car owner could decide to file a diminished value claim.

Some states and provinces have special rules, regarding a diminish value claim.

Some require the sale of the repaired vehicle, before the vehicle’s owner can claim any amount as the diminished value. The sale price serves as evidence of the vehicle’s new value. Some ask that the person submitting the diminished value claim pays for an expert, someone that can produce an estimate for the extent to which the vehicle’s value has declined. Personal Injury Lawyer in Halifax knows that without a document from such an expert, the claimant cannot proceed with the claim.

It pays to consult a lawyer.

Even in a state or province that does not have such a rule, the owner of the repaired car does need to show that vehicle’s pre-accident value. In the absence of such facts, the court lacks the ability to ascertain the monetary value of something that did not become involved in an accident, but did get driven a certain number of miles.

Unless the car owner did not take that set-of wheels out on the road, once it had been repaired, a judge in a courtroom could assume that any vehicle in the claimant’s garage, regardless of its condition, would have had miles added to its odometer. That addition of miles lowers the vehicle’s value.

In other words, unless a claimant can go before a judge the day after he or she gets the large, repaired item (vehicle), each added mile on the odometer lowers the value of that same item. That fact must be taken into consideration, if a court must reach a decision on the diminished value claim.

An expert would know how to weigh the extent to which the value has declined, as a result of time on the road, against the amount it has declined, as a result of the repair work. A lawyer could obtain such an expert, and arrange for presentation of the expert’s testimony. Ideally, the plaintiff would have pictures, along with documents that show the addition of any accessories. The defense team would not have those same pictures. Consequently, the weight of the evidence should support the claim.

In other words, the weight of the evidence should show that the repairs reduced the vehicle’s value. That would make the other party responsible for reimbursing the owner of the car that now has a lower value. So, the responsible driver would owe yet more money to the annoyed claimant.