![vermont attorney bob mcclallen credited his client, mike parker, with having excellent documentation, which was a key to winning his case against nationwide. he remarked that the body shop-consumer-insurance company triad constituted the “weirdest area of law [with which] i’ve ever been involved.”](/wp-content/uploads/News/01_01_2008/101104P1010018j_00000053499.jpg)
The Coalition for Collision Repair Excellence (CCRE) held a legal seminar March 30-31 for body shop owners and operators featuring several attorneys who shared the knowledge they’ve accumulated through years of bringing cases for body shop owners and defending them as well. The cases they went over involved tortious interference,
diminished value and other issues collision repair facilities are often
confronted with.
Panel members included Erica Eversman, general counsel for Vehicle Information Services of Bath, Ohio, and Robert McClallen of Vermont, who represented Mike Parker in his successful suit against Nationwide over short pays on collision claims. Also on hand were John Parese of Connecticut, Bill Bensley of Bensley Law Offices in Philadelphia, A. Brent Geohagan of Florida and Ashley Van Earl of Louisiana.
CCRE, an organization that was established in the mid-1990s, is on the leading edge of disseminating legal information to body shops. It held two legal seminars prior to this event, so this one served as a secondary level of training for its members.
CCRE has traditionally shunned insurance companies and has barred DRP shops from their membership, a long-standing policy which has marginalized the association. Yet it has endured as a trade association and weathered major shifts in the body shop business and its relations with insurance companies. CCRE regards insurers as an adversary, which is in contrast to the view of the mainstream industry groups.
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