Aerovette

My bet is this.

Stupid kid knew to push in the clutch to start it. Once it started, he just took his foot off the clutch. Simple...stupid...mistake. Sorry about your car. They'll pay.

JABCAT

^^^^ This is very important. My wife fell asleep at the wheel after a 32-hour shift at the hospital & hit a concrete pole in the hospital parking garage with the 4-month old Jeep Wrangler Unlimited I had gotten for her. I had to "fight" with our insurance company over the value of the Jeep because they offered me about $10k less than what the current market value was. I had to provide the window sticker of the car, my purchase contract, information on the factory options that came on the car etc. I had to do a lot of leg work also including finding examples of the exact optioned Jeep currently for sale at dealerships around the country as well as recently sold used Jeeps that were similarly optioned that sold for more than what they were offering. Essentially they used the lowest Unlimited model in their value estimator and it spits out a dollar amount (which is what the insurance rep told me).

The woman I dealt with was very nice, and admitted that she knew nothing about Jeeps & her repeated conversations with me going over all these items (models, options, etc. ) was great for her & that she took extensive notes so that they could better value cars in the future. In the end, they gave me the full value of the Jeep & let me remove all aftermarket parts I had installed. They ended up even cutting me a check for the winch & aftermarket front bumper because those could not be removed.

I would also contact your insurance company as well, if you haven't already, and let them deal with the shop's insurance company. They will have more leverage than you will & that is part of what you pay them for.

73DBG

Oh Boy

Never said he was one, where did you read that? My brother has more behind the scenes experience on any civil litigation than any lawyer you know. Please don't talk about stuff you have no clue about it's really embarrassing.

R&L's C6

Seriously, how old are you? No one is going to get pain and suffering from losing a car.

Aerovette

73DBG

BackInBlack05

???

Their role is to make you whole, not win a prize.

ontime

The best part about all of this is that no one was seriously hurt or killed during this incident. I am sure the company will resolve the financial issues associated with the loss. Try and think how many of us have reached into a car to start it , or hit the start trigger bumping an engine around had similar things happen when least expected. I am sure they are not only embarrassed but will have a financial loss to work throughout the year to recover, I hope it all works out for everyone involved and you enjoy driving a nice ride again. Good luck.

BackInBlack05

Never go full potato.

R&L's C6

HBsurfer

Just want to confirm that you are not the only one who thinks pain and suffering are NOT owed. Holy cow.

Good luck OP. I am sure the dealer will make it right.

Oh Boy

You see again, you insult people when you have NO CLUE what they do. Do you think my brother had a job for 33 years because he was dumb, that's a mighty high insult. Again I never said what he did and never said he took sides. Did you ever think maybe he was a judge!

USA1 427

Sorry that happened to you friend. I would definitely be after them for a new Vette. Nothing less.

C6 Snowboarder

dont ya have to be a Lawyer before you can become a Judge?

Oh Boy

Better still, OP you should listen to 73DBG and USA 427 and hire a lawyer for "pain and suffering" and for a new vehicle. Let a lawyer take all your money for something they can't win and then you get back to us and let us know how that worked out.

AORoads

cinnamon, sent you an email w. some thoughts Good luck. Terrible happening. Keep us updated on how it's going for you. We are in your corner.

BackInBlack05

Typical path. But at least for SCOTUS there's no requirement to have been a lawyer (or judge).

Corvette_Ed

Depends on the jurisdiction. From Legal Beagle:

Whether you must be a lawyer before serving as a judge depends on the requirements of the jurisdiction where you will serve. There aren't any legally-established qualifications for justices serving on certain federal courts -- including district courts, circuit courts and even the United States Supreme Court. On the local judicial level, each state legislature has discretion to set its own qualification requirements for judges. Twenty-four states allow nonlawyer judges to preside over certain types of judicial cases, as of 2014. For example, Pennsylvania does not require its magisterial district court judges to be licensed members of the Bar of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. These judges hear low level cases involving traffic violations and misdemeanor criminal charges.

C6 Snowboarder

True -- but for the Supreme Court they are called Justices not Judge. Supreme Court Associate Justice is proper name for 8 of them