Lemon Law for California

Depending on the state safety inspection sticker law that applies to the used car you buy, you may have certain legal rights if the used car you just bought fails the inspection. These safety sticker laws usually protect you if two conditions are met.

First, the car must fail inspection within a certain period from the date of sale.

Second, the repair costs must exceed a stated percentage of the purchase price.

Then you may have the right to cancel the car deal within a certain period.

You will probably have to notify the seller in writing of your intention to cancel, including your reasons. You must return the car to the place of sale, even if it requires towing. If the seller offers to make repairs, you can decide whether to accept the seller’s offer or get your money back. Again, all of these details may vary, depending on the state law that covers your used car deal.

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First, you must notify the manufacturer and, in some states, the dealer about the defect. Keep a copy of every repair receipt or service receipt. These receipts record that the required number of repair attempts has been made, and can be especially important if your car’s defect had to be repaired at another garage or in another city because it was physically impossible to drive the car back to the seller’s repair location.

Most states require that you go through an arbitration procedure before you can get a car replacement or refund. Some states sponsor arbitration programs, which may be more objective than those run by manufacturers. Arbitration is usually free, and results often are binding only on the manufacturer; if you don’t like the result, you can probably still take the manufacturer to court, depending on the rules that apply to the arbitration proceeding.

Some states require arbitration only if the manufacturer refuses to give you a satisfactory replacement or a refund. You also may have the option of bypassing arbitration and going directly to court.
If you successfully pursue a lemon law claim, you may get a refund of what you paid for the car, as well as reimbursement for things like taxes, registration fees, and finance charges. If you choose, you may get a replacement car. Be sure that it is of comparable value to the lemon it is replacing, and that it satisfies you completely.
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[ To Learn more our services and areas of practice, please visit our website at www.LemonLawIntel.com ]

As More Drivers Choose to Lease Cars, Courts Are Expanding Federal Warranties

The astronomical price of gasoline hasn’t stopped Americans from hitting the roads. But as rising interest rates get tacked onto the bill, more consumers are opting to lease their cars rather than buy.
Courts are catching up to the trend, adding auto lessees to the list of those protected by federal warranty statutes and expanding the reach of lemon laws on behalf of drivers who ended up with defective cars.
The federal lemon law, the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, allows consumers to sue in state courts to enforce car warranties and provides for recovery of attorney fees. Without the act, consumers who get stuck with lemons might still be able to sue for breach of contract, but—unless courts also could award attorney fees—damages would likely be too small for a lawyer to take the case.
The statute applies only to “consumers,” but its inelegant definitions of the term leave room to argue about whether lessees qualify. Some courts—including the well-regarded New York State Court of Appeals—have ruled that lessees aren’t consumers because they haven’t made purchases, which is required to meet one of Magnuson-Moss’ three definitions of consumer.
But the statute also talks about consumers as those entitled to enforce warranties—which supports the more recent interpretation that lessees are consumers. Clearly any person who has leased a new vehicle that comes with a warranty is entitled to enforce that warranty. 
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[ To Learn more our services and areas of practice, please visit our website at www.LemonLawIntel.com ]