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Auto Claim Specialists Wins Fight for Mandatory Right to Appraisal in Texas
Written byauto claim specialists
Throwing Stones to Take Down a Giant
FORT WORTH, TX / ACCESS Newswire / June 23, 2025 / They said it couldn’t be done. They said it was impossible. No one believed the battle to require the Right to Appraisal be included in all Texas auto policies could be won – no one except Robert McDorman, founder of Auto Claim Specialists, whose devotion to ensuring the safety of roadways in the Lone Star State inspired him to take up a slingshot in this iteration of the classic “David versus Goliath” showdown.
For nearly a decade, McDorman tirelessly led the charge to persuade lawmakers of the importance of mandatory appraisal rights, and his hard work has finally paid off – Senate Bill 458 has been adopted into the Texas Insurance Code and made law!
The war against the Appraisal Clause began in 2015 when State Farm removed this vital consumer protection from their Texas policies. McDorman took up the mantle and began sounding the alarm through meetings with the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) to alert them to the potential dangers that such an action presented to drivers and their roadways. Bills proposing mandatory appraisal rights were presented in the 2021 and 2023 sessions, but both times, the session ended before a conclusive vote; however, the third time was the charm!
Senate 458, the 2025 iteration of this legislative initiative, was fast-tracked through the process, obtaining unanimous approval from both the Senate and the House during every review. That’s a far cry from eight years ago when “legislators didn’t believe there was a need for mandatory appraisal rights,” McDorman recalls. “They hadn’t heard anything about it and couldn’t be convinced that it was a problem that needed their attention.”
Legislators’ disinterest did not dissuade him from his mission. McDorman continued to beat the drum for mandatory appraisal, meeting with TDI five times and appearing before various legislative committees a total of eight times to educate them on the impact of the Appraisal Clause. “Every time someone told me ‘no,’ I pushed forward. I refused to believe it was a waste of time.”
His dogged determination ultimately attracted attention, leading TDI to acknowledge the need for legislators to “establish policy form appraisal guidance” in its 2022 Biennial Report, and in its Report to the 88th Texas Legislature, the Office of Public Insurance Counsel (OPIC) expressed increasing concern with “restrictions on appraisal in policy forms filed by top insurers [which] can adversely impact consumers, who buy insurance to make sure damage to their property will be repaired or replaced. Without appraisal, they may be forced to choose between accepting the insurer’s offer and paying out-of-pocket for any disputed amount or taking on the costly and time-consuming burden of going to court.”
Auto Claim Specialists Wins Fight for Mandatory Right to Appraisal in Texas
Throwing Stones to Take Down a Giant FORT WORTH, TX / ACCESS Newswire / June 23, 2025 / They said it couldn’t be done. They said it was impossible. No one believed the battle to require the Right to Appraisal be included in all Texas auto policies could be won – no one except Robert […]
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King James Bible
And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
