About Diminished Value Attorneys
Diminished Value Attorneys recovers the market value your vehicle loses after a crash that wasn’t your fault, even when the repairs look perfect. We are the diminished value practice of Johnston | Martineau, PLLC, led by attorneys Chris Johnston and Chris Martineau, serving car owners across Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Texas.
Why does this practice exist?
Chris Johnston has practiced law for more than 25 years, most of that time in personal injury. Over those years, one conversation kept showing up across his desk.
A client’s car got hit. The other driver’s insurer paid the body shop, the car came back looking fine, and when the client asked whether it was now worth less, the adjuster had a ready answer: “You don’t have a diminished value claim.”
Frequently, that answer was wrong. The claim existed, nobody on the insurance side had a reason to mention it, and the money stayed with the carrier.
Eventually Chris got tired of the lack of candor from carriers. He started a diminished value practice at Johnston | Martineau, PLLC, built around a line he still stands behind.
The job here is narrow on purpose. We tell you what the adjuster left out, then we go after it.
Why hire diminished value attorneys instead of an appraisal service?
Appraisal services have their place. They sell you a report, and then you are on your own. You send it to the adjuster, the adjuster answers with the 17c formula, and the conversation stalls at a figure that looks nothing like what a dealer would knock off your trade-in.
Our work runs from the first phone call to the end of the claim:
- We evaluate the claim, starting with the year, make, model, mileage, and what happened.
- We build the evidence: valuation work, repair documentation, and market comparables.
- We deal with the carrier, so you are not trading emails with an adjuster.
- We negotiate the number.
- If the insurer refuses to pay, we explain your legal options and what each one involves.
The firm’s shorthand for this is “We bring value, beginning to end.” It is a bit of a pun. It is also an accurate job description.
Why go to that trouble? An accident on a Carfax or AutoCheck report does not disappear when the paint dries, and trade-in buyers price it in. A report can describe the loss. A lawyer can press the at-fault driver’s insurer to pay it. For the details, read how diminished value claims work.
Meet the attorneys
Chris Johnston, Attorney
Chris Johnston manages the diminished value practice. He brings over 25 years of legal experience, most of it representing people in personal injury matters, and that background shapes how he looks at a car claim. Injury cases and property claims run through the same insurance companies, with many of the same habits. After a quarter century across the table from them, he knows how a carrier values a file and how it tries to close one cheaply.
He built this practice after watching too many people leave money behind because of one wrong sentence from an adjuster. He oversees how each claim is evaluated, how the evidence comes together, and how the firm presents the loss to the carrier.
Call about a newer truck or a low-mileage SUV and you get a straight read on whether the claim is worth pursuing. Sometimes the honest answer is no, and he will say so. You can reach him at cjohnston@jmlegal.com.
Chris Martineau, Attorney
Chris Martineau is a trial attorney with over two decades of experience. His cases have covered the full range, from small claims court up to catastrophic injury and death, and he holds licensure in multiple states.
Before he became a lawyer, he worked in the property claims department of a major insurance carrier. He knows, from the inside, the arguments that keep a payout small. One carrier runs the 17c formula, with its 10% cap and a mileage cut that hits zero at 100,000 miles. Another points to a policy exclusion and calls the matter closed. Martineau has watched both moves from the adjuster’s side of the desk, so he builds the claim to answer them before they come up.
That trial background matters when an insurer will not budge. Some carriers pay once they see the evidence. Others dig in, and then it helps to have an attorney who is comfortable taking the next step.
Where do we serve?
We represent car owners in four states. Each state page covers the filing deadline, the fault rule, and the courts that hear these claims:
Deadlines vary more than people expect. Texas generally allows two years for a property damage claim, the shortest window of the four, and insurers often set internal notice timelines well ahead of any legal cutoff. Call soon after the repairs are done.
Frequently asked questions about our firm
Find out what your vehicle lost
Call the line for your state:
Prefer to start online? Request a free claim evaluation and tell us the year, make, model, mileage, and what happened.