Insurance claim problems. Advice needed!

[Elias Glavinas <eg1@cec.wustl.edu>]

Ok, I just got a letter from State Farm, and the amount they are giving me
for my totaled 85 is in my opinion not enough. 

Story:
19th of June, I am rear-ended horribly. Rear is thrashed/bent up until the
middle of the rear tires. Hatch is bent, glass is broken. Clearly a ton of
work is needed to fix the car (weld new rear clip, possibly from the back
seats and backwards, not an easy task). 

State Farm rents me a car (which I am still driving).

I insist that someone knowledgable takes a look at the engine bay to
realize that the car is in unbelievable shape mechanically and should be
treated as such. A guy does look at it and agrees that I am right.
Promises me he will do his best so that I will get something in the
2000-2500 range. The way state farm works is that they enlist an
"independent" company to appraise the car's value. Supposdeldy they look
at identical cars sold around the area recently.

About two months pass. I call up the guy again, he returns my phone call
in a week, and tells me that all the info coming back from the appraisers
shows ads from local papers, with my type of car selling for about
$1000-$1500. I knew the paper ads by heart at that point and I express my
surprise to him, as to why the appraiser chooses to list only the
sub-$1500 8V's, and not the $1800-2500 8Vs (there were about 4-5 in the
same paper). He goes "yeah, let me feed them that information". 

Another 3 weeks pass. Today I got this letter saying that the fair value
for the car is $1550 and that the appraisers were given the info about the
1800-2500 range 8V's for sale, but did not change their mind. 

I am basically screwed because they will probably ask me for $400 or so if
I want to keep the car (there are some great parts in there, including a
55,000 mile 4k tranny and a 2.25" stainless steel TT exhaust). Not a good
deal for me. 

My questions are: 

**What can I do at this point? Obviously these guys would love it if I
just accepted what they give, but they must be expecting a fight also.

**What is a good federal/state resource to turn to as far as my rights are
concerned? 

**I am pretty suspicious that the fact that they paid $1500 in rental fees
(due to their incompetence in processing this quickly) played a big role
in their decision not to give me more money. Is there any way I can use
that huge delay to my advantage?

**If I balk at their offer is there any law that says that I *have* to
make up my mind within such and such time? 

**Please feed me with any comments you might have. 


thanks,

Elias




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