Third Time’s a Charm? Unlikely at the ADALB!

Published in New England Automotive Report – Thomas Greco Publishing

In 2016, a revised version of 212 CMR 2.0 was sent up the chain for approval after being reviewed by the Auto Damage Appraiser Licensing Board (ADALB) that was seated at the time. No response was received from the Department of Insurance (DOI) for years, but after three Board members were replaced in early 2019, an allegedly misplaced letter made its way to the surface, raising issues with the amendments and justifying the need for the regulations to undergo review by the new Board.

Following delays caused by the pandemic, the ADALB hashed out the minutiae and argued through semantics for over a year before finally working out all the points of contention in the regulatory language and approving the proposed amendments to 212 CMR 2.00 with a three-to-one vote in July 2022. Since then, each meeting has failed to yield an update from the DOI…until, of course, two of those Board members were replaced late last year.

With the changes at the ADALB, news arrived from the General Counsel that “because we have a newly constituted Board, the newly constituted Board should review the process on its own,” Attorney Powers reported at the December 2023 meeting. 

And so the process began anew at the ADALB’s most recent meeting on January 23, commencing with Powers’ reiteration that the proposed amendments, which were reviewed and approved by the two previous Boards, need to be revisited yet again due to Carl Garcia (Carl’s Collision Center; Fall River) and Vicky Wei Ye (Bos Insurance Agency) being added to the current ADALB.

Board member Bill Johnson (Pleasant Street Auto; South Hadley/Belchertown) expressed his frustration with this third review by pointing out, “This started before my four-year-old granddaughter was even conceived. This is the third time the Board is reviewing these proposed amendments, and each time we approve them and submit them to Administration and Finance, we never receive a response until the composition of the Board changes again. I don’t know if that’s by design or if that’s just a coincidence, but by my recollection, there really isn’t anything earth shattering in these CMRs; they were just more of a reflection of changing with the times and upgrading definitions.”

Although Board member Peter Smith (MAPFRE) acknowledged that the process has been quite lengthy, he insisted, “It’s a necessary exercise for the new Board to go through and do a review of them.”

Any hope that this third review would require less detailed scrutiny flew out the window when Smith clearly stated his intention to continue perpetuating these delays: “Rome wasn’t built in a day. Unfortunately, we can’t go through the entire thing today. There are areas that we probably need to address and clean up in order to move this forward.”

Whether the amendments to 212 CMR 2.0 will ever actually move forward remains to be seen. Maybe third time’s a charm…but probably not based on previous experience with the ADALB.

The ADALB is scheduled to reconvene on March 12. Don’t miss detailed coverage of the meeting, only available in the February issue of Damage Report, AASP/MA’s members-only newsletter.

AASP/MA members are strongly encouraged to listen to the recording of the January 23 meeting in the Members Only section of aaspma.org for a glimpse into the inner workings of the ADALB. View the meeting agenda at bit.ly/ADALB0124.