Dan, thanks for your comments. It's not that I'm
not considering Small Claims Court, I'm just putting it off. Laziness is one factor in that decision, but there's maybe a little strategy behind it, as well.
Once it became clear there would be no quick and amicable resolution, the next step was to make sure the info about this shop was out there to protect others. (My Google AdWords numbers, site statistics and organic search results say I'm doing a pretty good job at that, and it's only building.)
If the case were a slam-dunk, I'd have easily gotten a contingency lawyer to take it to Superior Court. But it comes down to a bit of he-said/she-said between me and the former service manager as to what I explicitly asked to have done. And he's been willing to lie. So while I think there is a TON of inferential material in the surrounding case to establish the conclusion that Dieter's behaved negligently and incompetently - and to undercut their credibility on contrary assertions - there's every chance a court decision would be a compromise for something less than the maximum allowable award.
The first thing they do in Small Claims is send you off to mediation, where the demand for confidentiality in a mediated settlement would rapidly come into play - and then I'd be under the gun either to accept it or gamble on a lesser decision in court. I'd rather not cross that bridge until the statute of limitations has gotten a little closer than it is. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to learn more about the alleged criminal acts that other party recently posted about on Yahoo. If and when I go to court, I hope to have more facts on my side.
Meanwhile, I've succeeded in forcing the insurance company to re-open the case and assign it to someone else. So I'm not exactly dead in the water.
![[Image: Warning4AdWords.jpg]](http://www.porsche-bmw-service-sandiego.com/Images/Warning4AdWords.jpg)
