Tips On Winning a Lemon Law Case
When you purchase a car, truck or SUV, you buy it with the guarantee that all of the features will work. If they don’t, then you need to know how to have the best chance to win a lemon law case in California. As long as your vehicle is eligible, and you take the time to keep records of service appointments and issues, you can put your best case forward.
Mistakes Clients Have Made When They Have a Lemon
Car makers are companies with billions of dollars that they can put towards legal issues. You are not. So while California is a good state for consumer protections, we’ve seen clients who have made it harder to have a chance to win a lemon law case by making some of the following choices:
Being Too Specific with Your Issue when You Get Repairs
Even if you know a lot about your car, try to be as general as possible when you visit the dealership mechanic to get your vehicle serviced. Remember that they must be able to have a chance to repair the defect in the vehicle’s system. It’s rare, but possible, that they try to fix something else and you don’t reach the number of repairs needed.
Not Getting Proper Paperwork at Each Service Visit
A paper trail is critical to legal success in any case and it’s a critical component in lemon law cases as well. Each time you go to a service center, make sure that you obtain a receipt that includes the VIN (vehicle identification number), issue identified by the technician in charge of repairs and the steps that they took to remedy it. If you are to be without your vehicle for some time, try to also get a timestamp of when your car or SUV was delivered along with the days you drop it off and pick it up.
Confusing Repair Shops and Car Manufacturers
Certifications for repair shops come from a variety of associations, but they are only licensed representatives of the manufacturer as it pertains to the California lemon law if they are part of a dealership. This can be crucial in its effect on winning a lemon law case: just because someone *can* work on your vehicle does not mean that they are considered a manufacturer’s representative and considered part of the car maker as a legal entity. If you believe your car has an inherent defect, try to use the mechanics at the dealership where you bought it.
Seeking Repairs After More Than Two Attempts
California’s legal code says that people should have to allow a dealership to repair a vehicle up to four times or have it be unusable for up to 30 days, a fact you will see on many websites about how to win a lemon law case. The key phrase there is “up to” because sometimes you can determine a car is a lemon after just one visit.
Opting to Go Through Arbitration Because It’s Free
It’s true that you can use free state resources to pursue compensation from a car manufacturer. That does not mean that it gives you the best possible chance of success: an arbitrator is trying to seek a compromise that works for both parties and doesn’t necessarily advocate on your behalf. You could lose out on significant compensation.
We’ve seen issues like these make things more difficult for our clients and don’t want you to go through the same issue when trying to seek compensation for your defective vehicle. For more information about what paperwork will give you the best chance of success, see below.