When you are in an auto accident, the first thing is to stay calm. Secondly, make sure you call the police in order to document everything properly. The insurance company cannot dispute a police report but if you don’t call you can be stuck for months trying to receive compensation for repairs on an accident, figuring out who was at fault and in that time you will have to pay the deductibles and be treated the same as if you were at fault. The first step in getting a fair settlement is to not try to file a diminished value claim until after the car has been repaired, the reason for doing so is that if you bring it up the adjuster might just total out your car and you will come up loosing big time. So, after the car is repaired to your satisfaction then you simply call or contact your diminished value appraiser and you send in all of your paper work from the auto body shop, then they will prepare all the documents needed to get you a fair diminished value settlement for your depreciation amount because of the accident on your car.

The entire process from when you submit the information to when you get paid can be a little as 7-14 days.