More than 60 California body shop owners have RSVP’d Gene Crozat at G&C AutoBody that they will be attending a Nov. 12 meeting he’s organizing in Sacramento to discuss the prospects of filing a class action lawsuit against State Farm Insurance.

Attendees will be comparing notes and conferring with legal experts to determine whether they have compiled enough evidence to proceed with a court action against State Farm.

The main issue revolves around accusations of steering based on irregularities in the carrier’s labor rate surveys and frontline insurance personnel telling potential customers that their collision damage won’t be completely paid for – or the work won’t be fully guaranteed – if they take their wrecked vehicle to a non-direct repair program (DRP) facility.

Aggrieved shop owners contend that State Farm’s labor rate surveys vastly understate the accepted fees that collision repairers are charging, leading to underpayments and undue pressure being placed upon crash victims. They say the surveys focus on the rates being charged by DRPs rather than independent operations, and that outdated money amounts are frequently included.

California insurance industry representatives emphatically defend their practices in the Golden State, insisting that they do not engage in steering and that all the applicable laws are faithfully followed.

“If we can include everybody in the survey, the more accurate it will be,” says State Farm spokesman Dick Luedke. He says every shop in California is invited to submit their labor rate data, but many fail to do so because they lose their password to the carrier’s Internet reporting site.

“You have a facility ID, and we send letters to all the repair facilities giving them the ID,” Luedke points out. “You can update that survey every time you want to. “We can’t force them to do that, (but) we try to make it as easy as possible.”

Luedke suggests that shop owners contact their local State Farm representatives to obtain the correct password for participation.

G&C spokesman Peter Bizaca says the amount of positive replies to Crozat’s invitation to statewide repairers has been astounding. “Due to the overwhelming response, a larger space is needed to accommodate the crowd,” Bizaca reports. The new location is the Marriott Sacramento in Rancho Cordova, 11211 Point East Drive; 916-638-1100. The Nov. 12 meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. and will last about two hours. G&C can be reached at 707-591-3365.

Journalists from a number of media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee, are expected to cover the event

“It’s an educational and informational meeting. We’d like to get a consensus for a class action lawsuit against State Farm,” says Bizaca. “It’s a problem that refuses to go away.”

He goes on to note how “this isn’t just about the body shops, this is about consumers, too. Most consumers don’t realize they have a choice” regarding where they can take their vehicles for repair, and they have the legal right to expect adequate reimbursement from the insurer that has underwritten the policy – notwithstanding whether the repairer is a DRP or an independent.

“The timing is right” for the body shop industry to take action, according to Bizaca. “It’s coming to a head with the writ and the non-stop steering we’re hearing about from across the state.”

The writ being referred to is a 24-page “Writ of Mandate” that Crozat has filed against California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, staff official Darrell Woo and other Department of Insurance employees.

The document seeks to compel the department, under provisions of the California Public Records Act, to provide Crozat with copies of complaints filed by consumers unhappy with the performance of State Farm. Thus far Woo has only released the forms submitted by G&C customers, and Crozat already has copies of those; he wants to review the other filings as well.

Woo says those submissions are confidential and privileged.

Crozat contends that Poizner is not doing his job, and he is showing favoritism toward the insurance companies rather than adhering to his duty to protect consumers.

“No one’s going after the commissioner, and the problem is the commissioner,” says Crozat. “He’s deliberately turning a blind eye” to alleged misdeeds involving steering and faulty labor rate surveys. Calling the polling “totally skewed and fraudulent,” he charges that “the survey has motorcycle shops from five years ago” included in the tallies of stated labor fees.

“The answer for everybody in every state to sue the commissioner (in your jurisdiction) if you have evidence that he is not doing his job,” says Crozat.

Crozat suspects that Woo and Poizner have illegally disposed of the complaint forms. “This is going to open a can of worms,” he says. “This is going to prove that they throw them in the trash can.”

People in the body shop industry have told Crozat that they’re aghast at his spirited attempt to take on Poizner. Crozat counters that he’s trying to “stick a pin in the 500-pound gorilla” that Poizner has become through his clout as insurance commissioner and aspirations for higher office.

A Poizner spokeswoman requested that ABRN’s questions be submitted in writing; she subsequently did not respond to the queries.

Crozat alleges that Poizner is refusing to protect the state’s vehicle owners “because he wants the insurance companies’ money to run for governor.” (Arnold Schwarzenegger is to be term-limited out of office; Poizner is among the candidates, along with former governor and presidential candidate Jerry Brown, to replace him.)

State Farm’s Luedke says the company does not make campaign contributions.

In California, the insurance commissioner post has long been a stepping stone to other top leadership positions under Sacramento’s capitol dome. “We’ve never had a good commissioner because they’re always running for something else,” Crozat laments.