Filing Lemon Law Notices


The law always requires that you notify the company that you are claiming rights under lemon law protection against them. The fact that you have brought your car into the dealership on numerous occasions does not count as a legal notification. Generally, this is a real waste of time, but you still have to do it.

Your own states lemon law will spell out for you the way that you must notify the car manufacturer of your problems, such as sending them a letter that tells what the problem is and what you want them to do about it. In this case, it is probably best for them to buy the car back from you or replace it.

As with any important legal letter, you are definitely advised to send this through certified post a return receipt requested. This means that the party on the other end must sign for it and is proof that you sent the letter. Of course you have to be sure to save a copy of your letter.

The law usually always allows the other party to send a response to your claim. This of course will come to you in the form of a letter from the car manufacturer. What they will do is they will deny your claim every time. They will tell you that they have reviewed your claim and cant actually do anything about it. This of course is the first lie that they will tell you.

What it really means is hat they haven't reviewed a thing. They have no idea who you are, what the problem is, or the circumstances of the case; perhaps more importantly they dont care. They merely gave it a week to make you think they paid attention to you and then just plopped your name into a form letter that merely says no.

Car companies put out so many problem cars that if they honored every request under lemon law, they'd go broke in a matter of days. So their answer is to honor none of them unless they are forced to. They do know that if they deny every claim, probably 70-80% of cases will go away and they usually do. Car companies also know that if they string out the process as long as they can most of the rest of the cases will also go away because of these reasons:

1) Many people cant or won't come up with the money they need to retain an attorney or will become scared of going to court and back out.

2) Some will decide that going through the lemon law process isn't worth it and just sell the car privately.

3) Something can happen to the car like you could move out of state or have an accident which can be used as the cause of all problems by the companies.

4) If they can delay it long enough for you to put thousands more miles on the car, it will be reduced because the car is older and has been used more. Consequently, if you put on another 30,000 miles and they settle with you for value that is 30,000 more miles then they don't have to pay for.

5) Most of the people that actually go the distance will settle for their attorney fees and a couple of thousand dollars.

Car companies are fully aware that time and money is on their side and if they wait it out, they can get rid of about 95% of lemon law cases without even getting close to the courthouse steps. They are depending on this.

Car companies and lemon law cases
Here's a secret tip that should be obvious. Car companies do NOT want to go to court on a lemon law case. The risk of going to court far outweighs what they risk in doing it. Here's the reasons why:

a) Defending a lemon law case is expensive for these companies. By the time a lemon law trial is completed, the car company can easily spend ,000 defending itself from your claims. These cases are rarely completed with their own attorneys so it is really nothing to them but money out of pocket. With that much money at risk, defending a lemon law case is already very expensive, even if they win.

b) In most cases, the lemon law lets you collect up to three times the damages that you are owed. That means that if your car costs ,000, they can risk losing ,000 due to a jury decision, plus their own attorney fees. Since they can replace your car at cost AND still recover some of their loss in selling your old car, replacing your ,000 car with a new one can cost them as little as ,000. Their choices are really simple in that they can risk losing 0,000 or settle with you at their cost for ,000.

c) Car companies do not want to have to deal with the bad publicity from dealing with a lemon law case either. Obviously, your case is likely not going to make headlines the NY Times, but it still registers as newsworthy and can be picked up locally. Public attention to a lemon law case risks more than a loss in court for these companies. It can also represent loss in their public image and can result in a significant loss of sales.

Getting a lemon law attorney
After you have received your notice of denial of your lemon law claim from the company, it is time for you to go see an attorney. Any attorney can handle a lemon law case, but it is recommended that you find an attorney who specializes in lemon law cases. (More on this later) The reason for this is that they already know the law, they know the players, they've been through the process before, and they understand the bluffs that the car company will pull out of their hats.

This is where most people bail out on a lemon law case. You should be able to find an attorney who will evaluate your case for free, but that's where free ends. Good attorneys know that there can be things that their clients won't tell them and others might just decide not to go through with the case at all. They don't want to risk being left with their costs and time out of pocket and wind up with nothing.

To put it better, this is when it is time to get out your checkbook and put your money where you mouth is. Expect to fill out a check to your attorney for 00-3000 as a retainer fee before your attorney will go to work for you. If your case does get to court, you can expect that you will also have to come up with more money before doing so.

Your attorney will then write a letter to the car manufacturer, basically stating the same things that you wrote in your letter. Again, you should not expect much of a response from the car manufacturer. Chances are they will deny they are liable, state that they will honor problems under warranty, and blame you for any problems. Don't be discouraged.

After you get your failed reply, your attorney will file the necessary papers and complaints against the manufacturer. Chances are they will reply, however only through the court systems, denying the claim. In most cases, you should seek a jury trial because they are more sympathetic to buyer problems.

Car companies hate doing this because they know that juries tend to be more sympathetic to the person that has the bad car than they do with the company that made it and they likely have been procrastinating in dealing with you. They would prefer that the case be heard by a judge rather than a jury, BELIEVE ME.