Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed into law legislation proposed by
the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers, Minnesota (AASP-MN) on
May 8. Senate File 3508/House File 3822 prohibits insurers from
unilaterally and arbitrarily disregarding a repair operation or cost
identified by an estimating system. The legislation will become
effective on August 1, 2008.  

Minnesota Statutes 2007, section 72B.092, subdivision 1, is amended to read:

Prohibitions on insurer. No adjuster or insurer, director,
officer, broker, agent, attorney-in-fact, employee or other
representative of an insurer shall in collision cases: unilaterally and
arbitrarily disregard a repair operation or cost identified by an
estimating system, which an insurer and collision repair facility have
agreed to utilize in determining the cost of repair.

“Collision shops simply want to know that when they’re required to
incur the cost of using certain estimating systems, and that the
results of those systems will be respected in terms of the repair
procedures they undertake and the payments they receive,” says Judell
Anderson, AASP-MN Executive Director. "Under this bill, insurers will
no longer be able to selectively use these estimating systems.”  

The estimating database bill was one of three proposals advanced by
AASP-MN during the 2008 legislative session. The two other bills, one
which established a licensing program for collision repair shops and
the other which prohibited insurers from owning repair shops, were
heard and approved in the House Commerce  Committee but did not meet
deadlines for additional committee hearings. These issues will be
carried over to AASP-MN’s 2009 agenda.

In addition, AASP-MN warded off a measure to reduce the threshold for
disclosure of motor vehicle damage from 70 percent to 60 percent of the
cash value of the vehicle prior to sustaining damage. This legislation
would have been detrimental to the collision repair industry by
increasing the number of vehicles designated as total losses.