6 Important Reasons to Hire a Lemon Law Attorney

Why you need to hire a Lemon Law attorney

There are a multitude of reasons beyond just legal expertise to hire a lemon law attorney. Here are the top 6 reasons.

If you want to be fairly represented in court and receive the maximum settlement allowed under the law, then you need to hire a lemon law attorney. Furthermore, under the California Lemon Law, the vehicle manufacturer pays for your attorney fees! You do not have to pay anything!

The California legislature explicitly included a provision in the lemon law (California Civil Code Section 1794(d)) that requires the manufacturer to pay a prevailing car buyer’s attorney’s fees. Thus, if you have a solid case you will be able to hire a lemon law attorney for no money down and no fees or costs due upon settlement.

That being said, there is no reason to turn your lemon law case into a “Do-it-Yourself” project when you can hire a lemon law attorney to represent you. So, while it may be tempting to tackle the issue on your own, if you hire a lemon law attorney you can vastly improve your chances of a favorable resolution, and alleviate the stress associated with handling legal matters solo.

Top 6 reasons TO HIRE A LEMON LAW ATTORNEY

There are a multitude of reasons beyond just legal expertise to hire a lemon law attorney. A professional lemon law attorney brings a wealth of experience navigating complex legal proceedings and negotiations with auto manufacturers, ensuring your rights are protected. There really is no good reason to take on the auto manufacturers without having a skilled lemon law attorney fighting these battles on your behalf.

The dealership may work with you and they may even tell you that they are “buying your car back,” when it’s really a dealer assisted trade-in that does not give you all of the benefits of a lemon law repurchase.
If you do try to go through the BBB’s Autoline Dispute Resolution Program (PDF), you may think that you are getting a fair and unbiased neutral person to hear your case. Unfortunately, it seems that the unbiased neutral mediators are actually paid for by the automobile manufacturers. We have had clients come to us for assistance after an unfair result at the BBB’s hearing and we have gotten them a much better result.
Sometimes, even though your vehicle clearly qualifies for a lemon law repurchase, the automobile manufacturer may deny your request and you will be told that your vehicle does not qualify for a repurchase. This has happened too many times to count. Most of these situations have resulted in a full repurchase for our clients.
Occasionally, an automobile manufacturer may agree to buy your vehicle back from you, but the terms of the buy back may not conform to the law. For example, under the law, you are entitled to all of your out of pocket rental car fees, and a mileage offset placed at the very first time you presented your vehicle for a repair of the defect for which it is being repurchased.
We have actually had cases where the automobile manufacturer told our client that they had to accept a vehicle replacement and the manufacturer refused to agree to a repurchase. We sued the automobile manufacturer and obtained a civil penalty for our client in one such case. Another perfect example of why to hire a lemon law attorney.
Even if your vehicle’s defects do not meet the burden of proof for a repurchase, we can still possibly obtain a settlement of a few thousand dollars for you. The automobile manufacturers will never offer this unless you have a lemon law attorney.

The decision to hire a lemon law attorney is not just about adhering to legal protocol but also about securing peace of mind and skilled representation in your pursuit of a successful resolution.

Your Car Has A Lot of Problems. But is it a Lemon?

As frustrated as you may be with constant trips to your dealership for the same problem, not all problematic vehicles are considered “lemons.” While Lemon Laws differ from state to state, California’s Lemon Law actually favors the consumer significantly more than most other states. For example, in California, if a consumer wins their case, the automobile manufacturer is required to pay for the consumer’s attorney’s fees and costs. The consumer does not have to pay anything. With that said, California has strict criteria that must be met before your vehicle can qualify as a true lemon.

California’s Lemon Law:

Your vehicle was taken to a factory authorized dealership for a specific defect four or more times (for the exact SAME problem); and
The defect cannot be repaired after four or more repair visits; and
The defect substantially impairs your use, value, or safety. The substantial impairment requirement means that your vehicle’s defect needs to be serious enough that it severely impacted your use, value, or safety. If you are putting more than 20,000 miles on your vehicle per year, this makes it extremely difficult to prove that your use, value, or safety have been substantially impaired.

In order for us to win, we have to show that the factory authorized dealership has had repeated opportunities to repair to the vehicle, but they cannot actually repair the problem. The law only requires that you present the vehicle for repair, it does not require that the dealership verifies the complaint. But, if you have taken your vehicle to the factory authorized dealership multiple times for the same problem and they have never verified it or made a repair under the factory warranty, it is very unlikely that the manufacturer will buy the vehicle back under the California Lemon Law.

While defects such as radio, blue tooth, wind noise, or navigation system defects are extremely frustrating, and we want our vehicles to operate properly, these kinds of defects typically do not rise to the level of a substantial impairment under the law. A vehicle can still get you from one place to another if the radio does not work or the bluetooth system cuts out. The law views these kinds of defects as a nuisance and the automobile manufacturer is not likely to repurchase a vehicle for the failure of the radio, bluetooth, navigation system, or because the vehicle makes wind noise.

What You Should NOT Do When You Want to Hire a Lemon Law Attorney

If you are thinking about starting a lemon law case, you really SHOULD NOT do any of the following:

Tell your service advisor that the car is a lemon and you are calling an attorney. If you tell this to a dealership employee while your car is in the shop being repaired, your repair invoice may say something like “could not duplicate the problem, no repairs made.” This is the last thing you want to have happen if you think your vehicle is a lemon.
Post anything on a social media website or an auto forum chat room. It is fine for you to browse these sites and look at what other people are posting, but if you post anything online, including your own social media sites such Facebook, and then you begin a lemon law claim against an automobile manufacturer, the attorney for the automobile manufacturer will likely find what you have posted and try to use it against you in a deposition, mediation, or even at trial.
Lose your repair invoices. The most important documents needed in order to make a lemon law case are the actual repair invoices the dealership gives you when you pick up your vehicle after it has been repaired. Keep them together with the purchase contract in a safe place in your home, not in your glove compartment. Documents disappear from glove compartments too often.