First off, thanks for supporting me guys!
To address some of the concerns:
1. I will not have a problem obtaining experts, as stated by other members of this board; there are plenty of guys out there I can qualify in front of a judge as an expert.
2. Dealers can't hide. Sure they may be able to hide some assets, but corporations can be pierced and it is possible to go after the incorporators and any agents or employees. If a client has a civil cause of action against the seller he may also have a criminal cause of action against the seller which could possibly be turned over to the Attorney General for the state we are dealing with.
3. Jurisdiction - The firm I am working for, The Law Offices of Darrell C. Dethlefs, has contacts with attorneys in all 50 states and a networks is being set up to handle these cases no matter where they arise.
We will handle ANY vehicle fraud cases, Ferrari 250's, Mercedes 190SL, 300SL, Z/28, LS6, SS, L89, etc, anything. Even Ford and Mopar products. Fraudulent car appraisals, restoration misrepresentations, car is sold as "all numbers matching", but has a "CE" motor, etc. If a seller claims a car is something that it isn't, its fraud. If a seller or restoration shop is restamping engine blocks, putting them in cars and selling the cars as numbers matching all original, that’s fraud and misrepresentation.
Another thing to think about that we will be handling is inherent diminished value. This is when you purchase a high dollar car; take a Porsche for instance. You paid $100,000 brand new, right afer you purchase it, you have it appraised and it comes in at $95,000 (just because you drove it off the lot). You have it for a week, it has no miles on it and someone hits it. Insurance fixes the car and you get it re-appraised. Now the appraisal comes in at $85,000 just because it was hit. The car looks new, functions as new, but it has had major repairs. The difference between the $95,000 it was worth and the $85,000 it's now worth is an inherent value loss and I'm of the opinion that since your car is supposed to be returned to it's pre-accident condition, but now it's worth $10,000 less. I would like to try one or two of these cases because I believe the insurance company owes you a duty to get the car back to baseline ($95,000) and they should pay you for its inherent loss. If you were dealing with a Ford Focus, who would care, and the inherent loss would be too small to even worry about, but with a high-end car we are talking big dollars.
There is too much fraud in our hobby. Too many cowl tags trading hands on eBay, too many base Camaros being turned into Z28's and sold as original Z28's, etc. It's a wide spread problem and I'm trying to bring some legitimacy back to our hobby.
