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PA Shop Owner Files $713,000 Lawsuit Against Progressive for Underpayment of Legitimate Costs 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 first-hand 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 necessary costs to return the covered vehicles to their preSee Progressive Lawsuit, Page 60
Utah Could Be 1st State to Fully Legalize Self-Driving Cars on its Roads by Lee Davidson, The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah could become the first state to fully legalize driverless, autonomous vehicles anywhere on the state’s roads under a bill that cleared its first hurdle March 14. And state officials say the good news is those cars will never drive while drunken, distracted or talking on cellphones. The House Transportation Committee voted 10-0 to endorse HB371, and sent it to the full House. Its sponsor, Rep. Robert Spendlove, R-Sandy, said it could attract more of the emerging au-
tonomous vehicle industry to the state. “There is a great opportunity because of Utah’s tech center … to really take a lead in this area,” Spendlove said. He said Arizona currently allows autonomous vehicles by executive order from its governor, and Michigan encourages testing of them. But Utah would be the first to enact laws allowing them on all roads and adopting liability and insurance rules. Spendlove said action is needed because “we’ve got autonomous techSee Fully Legalize Self-Driving, Page 16
AUTOBODYNEWS.COM
Vol. 36 / Issue 4 / 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 14
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 20
by Alistair Charlton, GearBrain
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