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PA Shop Owner Files Nearly $713,000 Lawsuit Against Progressive by Stacey Phillips
Across the country, “insurers aren’t fully reimbursing consumers so they can have proper and safe repairs done,” according to Ron Perretta, owner of Professionals Auto Body in Pennsylvania. “It’s impossible for the shops to fix these cars properly [while] being paid what they are being paid,” said Perretta. “Their hourly rates are being suppressed and the repair operations that are needed to fix these cars properly have been suppressed.”
He said insurers continue to “bully” shops into lowering their rates and not performing operations required to bring the vehicles back to their pre-loss condition. After experiencing this firsthand for many years at his two Pennsylvania locations in Altoona and Duncansville, Perretta filed a lawsuit against Progressive in 2017. According to court documents, “Progressive had a contractual duty to the insureds and third-party claimants to compensate Professionals for the reasonable and necSee Progressive Lawsuit, Page 20
NY Collision Shop Owner Found Guilty of 3 of 4 Charges
east to west on Sittlerly Road in Halfmoon at high speed, failed to After eight hours of deliberations make a curve, and hit a tree. In a statement on the jury over a two-day period, a verdict, Saratoga County Saratoga County jury on District Attorney Karen March 16 found Ballston Heggen said Cole was Spa, NY, body shop owner found guilty of assault in John Cole guilty of three of four charges lodged against the second degree, a Class D violent felony, driving him over a one-car crash while ability-impaired, a that left a passenger paraJohn Cole traffic violation, and recklyzed from the neck down. Cole was indicted in October by less driving—an unclassified misdethe Saratoga County District Attor- meanor. The jury found him not guilty of ney’s office for being the alcoholimpaired driver of a car that drove See Shop Owner Guilty, Page 67 by Glenn Griffith, The Record
AUTOBODYNEWS.COM
Vol. 9 / Issue 1 / April 2018
Non-OEM Parts Legal Battle, Begun in 1997, Set for Trial in May 2018
A federal judge in February declined in rejecting State Farm’s calls for to dismiss a $9 billion class action dismissal of the suit that whether or racketeering lawsuit against State not the Avery judgment should have Farm over the insurer’s alleged role been overturned, the vehicle owners in the election of an Illinois Supreme involved deserve to know they lost fairly. Court judge—setting the “Plaintiffs seek to vindistage for the latest trial in a cate their right to be judged decade-long battle involvby a tribunal that is unconting the insurer’s use of nonaminated by politics,” Judge OEM parts. Herndon wrote. The lawsuit claims The suit is seeking triple State Farm helped secure the damages of the Avery the 2004 election of Justice Lloyd Karmeier suit plus more than a dozen Lloyd Karmeier, and that Karmeier improperly participated in years of interest—a total of about $9 the reversal of a $1 billion judgment billion—for the 4.7 million vehicle against the insurer in 1999 in the owners represented in the original Avery vs. State Farm class action Avery suit. Trial is set to begin May 7. lawsuit. Without passing judgment on How did we get here? the merits of the current case, U.S. So how does a non-OEM parts lawDistrict Judge David Herndon said See Legal Battle, Page 46
Uber Halts Autonomous Car Testing After Pedestrian is Killed in AZ, First Known Fatality by Self Driver
ter: “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We are fully cooperating with A woman has died after being struck local authorities in their investigation by a self-driving Uber vehicle in of this incident.” It is believed that Elaine Tempe, Phoenix, AZ. The Volvo XC90 was operating Herzberg, 49, is the first pedestrian in autonomous mode when it hit the to be killed by an autonomous car. The incident occurred between Mill Avenue and Curry Road on the night of March 18. Police said the victim was crossing the road outside of a crosswalk at the time of the collision. The woman was taken to The autonomous Volvo XC90 struck a pedestrian as she the hospital, where she died crossed the road. Credit: ABC15 from her injuries. The National Transportation woman as she crossed the road, police said. A vehicle operator sat be- Safety Board said in a tweet that it is hind the wheel at the time of the “sending a team to investigate” the incident, but the car was carrying no incident. Uber had been testing its auother passengers. Uber said in a statement on TwitSee Uber Halts Car Testing, Page 22
by Alistair Charlton, GearBrain
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