Releasing impounded vehicles can be a tricky affair. You need to be sure that the person or company to whom the impounded vehicle is being released has been duly authorized by the vehicle owner. Otherwise, you might find yourself at the wrong end of a lawsuit seeking money damages for improper release of an impounded vehicle.
The TowLawyer gets this this call at least once a week. Scenario is this: tow company calls TowLawyer and is upset that they are not getting the opportunity to perform tow services for a particular law enforcement or governmental agency. TowLawyer asks the following question: what can you point to that gives you the legal right to perform tow services for that particular law enforcement or governmental agency.
In the tow business, it is common for companies to refuse to release vehicles until the full bill for towing and storage has been paid. Although this is rarely discussed, the legal basis behind a company’s refusal to release a vehicle centers on whether or not the tow company has a possessory lien. Stated another way, generally, it is unlawful to retain someone’s property without some legal basis.
This might be the most common case where a tow company is likely to get “stiffed” on their tow bill. In other blogs, we’ve covered the situation where there is property damage to a privately owned house or property. The tow company should get an assignment from the property owner. An assignment helps the tow company “stand in the shoes” of the damaged property owner, which can help them collect their bill on a liability only claim.
Insurance companies employ individuals on a full time basis to knock down towing bills. Do you employ someone on a full time basis to make sure your bills are correct? Probably not. But there a few basic practices you can put in place now that will certainly help your situation.
At our “Lawyers Tips For Getting Tow Bills Paid” presentation at the 2016 Florida Tow Show, we were fortunate to speak to packed houses on two occasions, which allowed us to meet and listen to tow companies from across the United States. We heard a common complaint: tow companies are being beaten down by insurance companies and consumers who simply don’t want to pay tow bills. We also heard from a great many tow companies that there are very few people who either can or will help tow companies. Well we can and we will!
I would say of all the work I do for tow companies, down time claims are the ones that get tow companies the most fired up. The scenario goes like this: a tow company’s vehicle is hit in an accident and is out of commission for a few weeks. In addition to the damages to the actual tow truck, the tow company also submits a claim for the revenues the truck would have generated had it not been out of commission. This is the “down time.”
Not too long ago I was hired by a tow company that had recently spent thousands of dollars on another lawyer whom the tow company hired to try and get them on a law enforcement tow rotation. The other lawyer was a general business lawyer without any experience representing tow companies. The other lawyer wrote the law enforcement agency a long (and expensive) letter threatening all sorts of things if the law enforcement agency did not promptly allow the tow company on the tow rotation.
I bet I get at least one call a week from a tower wanting help on recovering a “property damage” claim. The term “property damage claim” means different things to different people. It could be a tow truck getting hit and damaged. It could be someone running into a building. However, when I think property damage in the context of a towing claim, I think about the scenario where there has been a motor vehicle accident and a third party’s “property” has been damaged.
It all starts with a plan. When a tow company has a beef with a city, state, or any other kind of governmental agency, the first thing I usually recommend is that the tow company send a sunshine law request to the offending governmental agency. A sunshine law request, or open records request, is a law requiring certain proceedings of government agencies to be open or available to the public. Though there are exceptions, sunshine laws basically require that a government allow members of the general public to view certain documents.
