Push It Back, Push It All Back with the ADALB

by Chasidy Rae Sisk

The agenda for the July 22 meeting of the Auto Damage Appraiser Licensing Board (ADALB) included a handful of things to be discussed, but in typical fashion, half of the actionable items were pushed back to future meetings, beginning with the first order of business.

Minutes from the May meeting had not been prepared for approval, so that vote was pushed back. The scheduled review of Complaint 2025-18 was also delayed since the Board had not yet received a response from the appraiser in question. 

The call to continue the review of 212 CMR 2.00 led to another postponement as Board member Peter Smith (MAPFRE) admitted that he and Board member Carl Garcia (Carl’s Collision Center; Fall River) had been unable to prepare revised verbiage pertaining to the duties of insurers and repairers as promised in May. Smith offered to reconcile the additions and deletions made to-date and send them to the Board members to “keep things moving at the next meeting.”

AASP/MA Executive Director Lucky Papageorg sought clarification on the matter of ethics and conflicts of interest that was raised nearly two years ago, related to who can vote on specific issues. Attorney Michael Powers indicated that he was in the process of gathering detailed information about each Board member’s professional interactions with the insurance industry to submit to the Ethics Commission to review and issue advisory opinions on each individual.

Powers provided an update on the Auto Body Labor Rate Advisory Board’s (ABLRAB) progress which is “proceeding in a business-like fashion.” By that point, the ABLRAB had held several meetings, including the public hearing on June 12 (read the recap at grecopublishing.com/near0825coverstory). “About 15 witnesses testified,” Powers shared. “Now, the Board is in the process of gathering information about the labor rate from the auto body industry” via a questionnaire which has elicited around 500 responses from body shops in the state. 

The next step for the ABLRAB will be to survey the insurance industry, according to Powers. Another public hearing will take place in September for the ABLRAB to hear testimony from “industry experts on both sides of the equation. We’re doing exactly what we’ve been asked to do,” he added, expressing the belief that the advisory board will file a report by December 31 as ordered in the law. (Read more about the ABLRAB on page 13).

The ADALB is scheduled to reconvene on September 23. Information pertaining to the ADALB’s meeting schedule and planned agenda is typically posted by the Friday prior to the meeting at bit.ly/ADALBagendas.

AASP/MA members are strongly encouraged to listen to the recording of the July 22 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/ADALB072225. More detailed coverage of this meeting appears in the August/September issue of Damage Report, AASP/MA’s members-only newsletter.

Want more? Check out the September 2025 issue of New England Automotive Report!