Hello All,

Can anyone tell me where I can find case law on THIRD PARTY DIMINISHED VALUE? I bought a car for my daughter and she was hit by a pickup truck. She was fine, but her car was $500 from total loss. The at fault party's Insurance company paid to have the car rebuilt, but after the repairs, its just not the same. We immediately took the car to trade it in but, the trade in value from the 3 dealers we took it to are between $7K to $10K less than blue book trade due to extensive damage! Of course the Insurance Rep won't even return my calls regarding this, so, I guess I need to file a suit against them in County Court but I can't find any actual cases on the internet. Any help would be VERY appreciated!!

I can understand that this is frustrating for you. You may have a tough time finding case law online. You may have better luck checking out your local law library.

Thank you so much for the advice. I'll try that!

To assist in your research, you want to find the cases that go the other way and find exceptions.

In 2002, the Supreme Court of Florida in the case of Siegle v. Progressive Consumer Insurance Company, 819 So. 2d at 732 struck down claims for diminished value for all matters where the insurance policy gives the insurer the option of repairing or replacing a damaged vehicle with “other of like kind and quality.” This language is now standard in most insurance policies and therefore in most cases, claims for diminished value are not allowed.