At times, we as practitioners lack a keen sense for the obvious. Take, for example, the instance of a rear-ended personal injury client, where the natural focus is usually upon a recovery for bodily injury. The faultless client’s carrier in the normal course pays for, and then, by subrogation, recovers the payment. So the process goes. Little, if any, thought is given to the resultant value of the client’s vehicle, once repaired. After all, the repair costs have been paid and presumably the vehicle looks the same as it always did.
However, this is a short-sighted practice which overlooks the prevalence of modern day, readily online available vehicle history reports and the impact they have upon post-repair value. These reports contain critical information regarding not only a vehicle’s title history but also a record of accidents and repairs. Of course, these historical reports admittedly reflect only those repairs which have been reported—reports which may be delayed up to a year—and many times fail to distinguish between minor and major repairs and are otherwise inaccurate. “Carfax” is the most popular commercial website-based service that supplies history reports. In fact, Carfax lists a “price adjustment” based upon the repaired damage it reports—an adjustment which some experts believe is nebulous at best. Nonetheless, rarely do (or should) consumers or dealers purchase vehicles without a Carfax or similar repair history.
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