Increased Divisiveness

Insurer-owned shop legislation one sign of growing divisiveness between many shops and the insurance industry

Jan. 1, 2020

Insurer-owned shop legislation is front and center in the news this month and is just one sign of growing divisiveness between many shops and the insurance industry. As you will read in our news section beginning on the cover, numerous states have had legislation introduced that would ban, or at least severely limit, insurance-company ownership of collision repair facilities. The pace with which these bills have proliferated has been somewhat surprising. While an insurer that pathologically refuses to pay competitive rates deserves to be sued, the consumer is the one who often suffers the most
during a harrowing claims handling nightmare. They deserve to be referred to an insurer that has a more
policyholder friendly approach.Many believed that Allstate

About the Author

Russell Thrall III

Former ABRN Editor-in-Chief Russell Thrall, a second-generation collision repairer, has experienced the shop from the bottom up, starting as a clean up person and working his way to assistant manager by age 17. Thrall joined the staff of Chilton's Automotive Body Repair News in 1991 as technical editor and as senior editor in 1992. From 1993 through 2000, Thrall served as editor of Collision Repair Industry INSIGHT. Thrall returned to the staff of ABRN in June 2000 as editor-in-chief of the industry's largest monthly trade magazine. Thrall was a frequent speaker at industry events including the Collision Industry Conference (CIC), NACE, and numerous other local and regional events. He served as co-chairman of the Collision Industry Conference Electronic Commerce committee and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Auto Body Council.