Pack Brothers Collision Center of Belmont, N.C., won a short-pay arbitration case in a Lincoln County North Carolina court against Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.

On Feb, 3, 2014, a judge awarded a customer of Pack Brothers a little more than $3,000, which was owed to Pack Brothers for collision repairs that Nationwide refused to pay upon completion of their insured’s car.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the customer with a Power of Attorney assigned by the customer in cooperation with Pack Brothers. The customer was insured by Nationwide, which refused to pay for repairs for a first-party claim. According to Pack Brothers, Nationwide did not honor their policy and refused to pay them for the repairs. A judge found that under the policy language, Nationwide did owe their policyholder so he could satisfy his collision repair bill. The judge entered a judgment against Nationwide finding in favor of the customer so that he could pay Pack Brothers.

"Insurance companies are so used to saying that they will not pay for correct repairs, and they know that very few shops will push it into litigation," said Ronnie and Larry Pack. "Therefore, they continue to deny payment to the shops because they know it’s time consuming and expensive for the shop owners to pursue.

"What we are seeing is that insurance companies are shortcutting repairs, and so the repairs to the car are now compromised because of the insurance company refusal to pay for the correct repairs needed. Therefore, some of the shops are shortcutting the repairs to make up for that loss – which ultimately makes the customer the loser.

"Our victory means nothing unless the whole industry gets involved and demands to be paid for correct repairs."