What is the Law on Car Rental and Loss of Use in Las Vegas Auto Accident Cases?

You are in a car accident. Your car is damaged, needing extensive repairs. You need your car to get to work, take care of your family and do every other errand to manage your life.  But the at-fault driver’s insurance company is dragging their feet on getting you a rental car. So, you rent a car yourself. After weeks of rental car, you decide you can no longer afford it.  You rely on friends and family for another week, while your car is being repaired.
 

It turns out the insurance company never gets their act together and you have three property damage losses:1. Car Repair costs; 2. Rental Car Costs; 3. Vehicle Value and 4. Loss of Use for your own car while you didn’t have your car or a rental car. The seminal case on car issues after a car accident is Dugan v. Gotsopoulos, 117 Nev. 285 (2001)
 
Car Repair Costs. This is the easiest property damage to prove. Evidence of the car repair costs from the car repair shop can be used to document your out-of-pocket car repair costs.
 
Rental Car Costs.  In Dugan, the Nevada Supreme Court determined that the lower trial court should have allowed Dugan herself to testify about rental car costs. Furthermore, the court held that expert testimony is not required when discussing car rental costs. Here again, any out of pocket expenses can be documented through the rental car receipt.
 
Loss of Use. ‘Loss of Use’ is a term of art used to describe the situation when you do not have your own car (as it is in the car repair shop), but cannot afford to rent a car, after a car accident. In Dugan, the Nevada Supreme Court determined that the lower trial court should have allowed Dugan to recover loss-of-use damages. The Nevada Supreme Court stated that a party may recover loss-of-use damages for the time period in which that party has lost use of her personal vehicle as a result of damages to her automobile. These damages may be measured by reasonable rental car costs for a reasonable period within which to repair the vehicle. A party need not actually rent a vehicle to recover loss of use damages if that party is financially unable to rent a substitute vehicle. "The owner has suffered compensable inconvenience and deprivation of the right to possess and use her chattel [personal property] whether or not a substitute was obtained."
 
Moreover, in order to establish loss-of-use damages, expert testimony is not required. A party is permitted to testify about rental car rates, as long as that person had some basis for the valuation. Loss-of-use damages may also be awarded for the inconvenience of loss-of-use based on individual circumstances, to which the party can testify. If you rented a car for a period of time, using that daily rate would be a good starting point for the value of “Loss-of-Use”.
 
Vehicle Value. The Nevada Supreme Court also stated that the Kelley Blue Book could be used as evidence of the vehicle's value. They cited NRS 51.245, which  provides:  “Market quotations, tabulations, lists, directories or other published compilations, generally used and relied upon by the public or by persons in particular occupations, are not inadmissible under the hearsay rule.” The Nevada Supreme Court stated that Kelley Blue Book is a publication that is generally used in the automobile industry as a price list and generally relied on by persons in the trade to determine the value of an automobile. Therefore, the damaged party is allowed to present the value of her automobile through the Kelley Blue Book.

Next time, we will discuss when the police must respond to a Las Vegas auto accident.