Q: After a car accident, my car was stolen by the tow company & totaled/ransacked for parts. Is there anything I can do?
I got into a collision near the end of 2016. The towing company that came to pick up my car did not deliver it to the location for 3 days. When I was finally able to track it down, the owner of the tow yard claimed there was significantly more damage to the vehicle than there originally was - saying doors were ripped off & oil was leaking from the car, parts were missing... Essentially that it was totaled. The contact information on business cards the towing company provided me were out of service and I was unable to ever find them again or find out what happened to my car. I even lost my job because I had no way to get there without a car.
A:
Very sorry to hear you had these troubles. In 2016, an unknown and unlocateable towing company defendant used your car as a salvage and stole parts. The first problem with these facts is that the statute of limitations for this is probably 2 years, no more than 3 years since you did not have a written contract with the towing company. The second and equally important problems is that you don't know where to locate the potential pocket from which you are going to get paid. While many attorneys take cases on contingent fees, they don't usually handle just a property damage case with these facts, that calls for an expensive investigation to be done, on a contingency. You could file your own case in Small Claims, but how will you serve the complaint on the defendant? The third problem is with your proof of damages, since so much time has passed, where are the witnesses, the evidence to prove up a case? You should try to contact a Personal Injury attorney in your local area and put all the facts in front of him.
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