Dealing with Your Insurance Company When Your Car Is TotaledIf your insurance company determines that your car is a total loss (i.e., your car has been totaled), they will perform research to determine the market value of your car and then offer this amount to you. Oftentimes, this appraisal will be less than you were hoping for and maybe less than is actually fair. Here is some advice on how to get the maximum value for your car:

Insurance Companies Perform Skewed Research When your insurance company performs research to determine the market value of your car, they often exclude cars that are priced higher than the amount they want to pay. In other words, they limit the market they research to those cars that are at a lower price. So, their research may not indicate actual market conditions. You have a right to a copy of the report you insurance company comes up with. Be sure to ask for a copy before making you decision. 

Perform Your Own Research
​You don't have to (and probably shouldn't) accept your insurance companies first offer. You can perform your own research to determine the value of your car. One of the easiest places to look is on the internet. Cars are constantly being sold on the internet and you can look for a car just like yours (same make, model, year, features, etc.). Make a list of the prices you come up with and average them.

Find Out the Blue Book Value of Your Car.
Your insurance company probably won't offer you the Blue Book value of your car. This is because insurance companies are not required by law to pay you the Blue Book value. You should find out the Blue Book trade in value for your car. This can be done on the internet.  Once you know the blue Book value of your car, let your insurance company know.

Compare Your Research with Their Research.
When you receive the copy of your insurance company's report, compare it to the research you have performed. It may be that much of what you found is not on your insurance company's report. Send a copy of your research to your insurance company and politely ask them to raise their original offer in accordance with what you found.

Carefully Read Through Your Insurance Company's Report.
The report you receive from your insurance company is supposed to contain comparable vehicles that are available in your local market.  Be sure to go through the listings. Check to see if any of the listings are old and how far away they are. Anything over 75 miles away is not in your local market. Some of the listings may no longer be available. Verify the information if you can. Highlight out of date, unavailable, and/or distant listings and show them to your insurance company. 

Options, Options, Options
The options on a car can make a huge difference. Things like a CD player, power windows, power locks, and leather interiors can add a lot of value to a car. Your insurance company may not take these options into account when determining the value of your car. Find out the Blue Book value of your car with the options and then without and note the difference. Tell your insurance company you want the difference included. 

Present your Car and Yourself in a Good Light
If there are good aspects about your car, inform your insurance company. For example, low mileage and never having been involved in an accident can add value to your car. Also, when dealing with your insurance company, be very polite and respectful. If their offer is unreasonably low, you can take them to small claims court. 

Know the Law
Each state has its own laws regarding how insurance companies must operate. Insurance companies also have a covenant of good faith and fair dealing they must abide by. If your insurance company violates this covenant or breaks some other law, you may be able to bring a case. 

If your insurance company won't listen to you or treats you unfairly, call us Today to help! 

Legal Investigative Services 

Legal professionals can’t do everything themselves.  Lawyers and their aids spend a lot of time in books and getting ready for trials, and that’s why they often hire private investigators to do some of their legwork.

• Locate people or assets – Whether it’s a witness, a stolen item or that missing something (animate or inanimate) the lawyer needs to close their case, a skilled private investigator can help track down whatever is needed.
• Evidence - When most people think of private investigators they think of a guy spying on a cheating spouse.  Investigators are known for their ability to find evidence someone needs to find the truth, and the same can be applied in legal cases.
• Process server - Having a hard time finding someone to serve them legal documents like a subpoena or divorce papers?  That’s another thing we specialize in.

If you are a legal professional in need of a little extra help, give Vandermoere & Macke a call locally at (317) 228-9200 or Toll Free at (877) 228-9209. Or be sure to connect with me on LINKEDIN. 

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-macke/19/503/7b8


Be sure to LIKE us on FACEBOOK. 
https://www.facebook.com/vminvestigations

“If you have a need to know, you need to know Vandermoere & Macke"

Few people seem to realize or care about the dangers social media brings to our lives. Our online habits are changing rapidly from a closed, private behavior towards an open and sharing culture. While this brings us lots of good, it seems to me we are still very naive about its possible dangers.

Let me provide you five dangers that arise due to our changed online behavior. These dangers should make us realize that when (not if) we move into an era where data becomes currency, we will need to develop better privacy and security measures to go along with that. There are many more dangers that can be thought of, but I’ve just picked 5.

1. Identity theft

Stealing another person’s identity is easier than you think. We are not aware of the information we share on the web. And we often do not realize that Google never forgets. We can find names, birth dates, family members, school and work history, and much more on anyone. We can find e-mail addresses, credit card information, and from there we can get access to bank accounts and identity information. Honestly, it doesn’t take a genius to steal a person’s identity online. Right now this often has financial repercussions (people buy stuff on your credit card), but the consequences may be more severe. When important aspects of our lives are moved online identity theft can do us more harm. Think about someone committing crimes in your name. And it can be done so easily. All you need to do is sign up for a new cool web 2.0 social networking thingy. This is a harmless example, but you can imagine what can be done.

2. Everything known about you can and will be used against you

Remember that college party where you had a great time and posted a few pictures of you and your friends on the web? Remember that post you wrote where you talked about your political views, your religion, sexual preference, or point of view on various issues?  Remember that you friended a person that turns out to be a criminal? Or it happens to be someone that is a bit more explicit, has really different political views than yourself. Often we are not aware what others can find about us. Part of the problem is that we have almost no control over the data that is stored on the web about us. But once it is out there it can and will be used in ways you hadn’t thought about before. How about a status update on Twitter or other social network. “I’m off to the web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco’. Harmless right? Not if you realise how easy it is to figure out the address you live at and then empty your house while you are away in San Francisco.

3. Everything is traced to you as a person

If there is one difference between the online and physical world is that data online can be traced to individuals more easily than in the physical world. We are often not aware how much information we give away that can be directly related to us. Social networks have millions of of profiled users in their database. Google has Google accounts. Every time we log into such profiles the data that is collected is directly related to our identity. It isn’t anonymous, it is traceable to ourselves. And that data is used, often for commercial purposes, but sometimes for evil purposes. It may take new laws, new governments, a change in a management team, or a war that can get the wrong people have access to your profile.

4. You have no control over your user data

Web 2.0 services live and thrive by your user data. Facebook exploits your and your friends data and creates revenues from it. Any web 2.0 company that has advertisement as one of its core business model elements will use your data, your interactions, your friends, to create revenues. You get privacy settings that protect you from other users, but who protects you from Facebook itself?

5. Who are you talking to?

Everything becomes social. As a result we can friend thousands of people on the web. In most cases we do not know who that ‘friend’ is. We are not aware that social networking services have a business model in which the network (the no of users connected) is way more important than the individual users. So ‘friending’  is dead simple and encouraged. It seems less important to actually know someone than to ‘friend’ anyone that comes along. Quantity over quality. And while this works out fine in many cases this certainly provides dangers for children, relative less experienced web users, etc. Who are you really talking to?

conclusion

I do not think that sharing, social networking or social media are necessarily bad things. I do mind that current practice ad business models make sharing more important than privacy and security. The current financial flow doesn’t allow us to develop better privacy or security measures as there is no one interested in investing in it. Privacy is losing ground to social media while they should be developed hand in hand. I often hear the argument “I have nothing to hide, so what is the fuzz about”. I find that a naive view on this subject. This shift in behavior caused by social media services with data becoming the most important currency is a development  that is unstoppable, and it calls for immediate action.