Mike Orso, president of Nick Orso’s Body Shop in Syracuse, New York, has announced that his attorneys will file over $1 million in “short pay” suits against various insurance companies this month.
Additional causes of action, interest and penalties increase the various suit values to more than $3 million. That amount is spread over approximately 1,200 first-party claims.
According to Orso, the suits stem from a variety of short pays or refusal to pay for the following:
• Posted labor rate
• Paint materials per itemized invoice
• P-page denials
• P-page omissions
• Arbitrary caps (some of which concern clearcoat or refusal of body material needs)
• Parts cost for installing OEM parts after shop refused to install used or aftermarket parts
“Some claims involve vehicles still under warranty, which is the basic subject of the current West Virginia vs. Liberty Mutual case and Greg Coccaro’s battle with Progressive,” said Orso. “Nick Orso’s will not use parts of questionable origin or quality – they are flat refused here.”
Orso says some of the suits are also based on denied labor on “ill-proposed repairs of vehicles later totaled because of shortsighted insurance decisions to repair vehicles that, if appraised properly by appraisers after teardown and properly blueprinted, would have been totaled.”
“Nick Orso’s is a 57-year-old collision repair shop, and for 57 years our focus has not changed.,” said Orso. “We don’t believe the insurance company is the expert. Their estimate is an offer of payment, period. Since the shop holds the liability in a repair and is responsible to the customer for every detail of that repair, we’ll continue to make our own repair decisions based on manufacturer-recommended repair procedures or techniques that render the best results. If [insurers] are willing to work with us, great. If not, we use the process we’ve developed for collecting the short pays. Many companies have come around and are willing to settle during the repair. It just took them a few trips to court to know we were serious."
More information:
New York Body Shop Owner Prevails in Assignment of Proceeds Case
