What you often see in a California Lemon Law case

Bringing a lemon law action can be pretty intimidating, especially if you consider that you’re going up against the dealership who has been giving you problems, the manufacturer who seems like they don’t care about you after they’ve made the sale, and the still problematic vehicle giving you issues. Because of that, here is a list of common terms, expectations, pitfalls and benefits you can see in a California Lemon Law case (or at least what occurs most of the time).

No Recovery, No Fee

Most California lemon law attorneys will have something like this on their webpage and it’s important to know and understand because the attorney client relationship has several key features to know about and financial repercussions is one of them. Under California law, if the consumer is succesful in their lemon law claim, the attorney representing them is entitled to have their attorneys fees paid by the manufacturer. This is outlined in CCP 1794(d), which says

“(d) If the buyer prevails in an action under this section, the buyer shall be allowed by the court to recover as part of the judgment a sum equal to the aggregate amount of costs and expenses, including attorney’s fees based on actual time expended, determined by the court to have been reasonably incurred by the buyer in connection with the commencement and prosecution of such action.”

Great news for both the consumer who doesn’t have to pay attorney fees and good job on the attorney’s part for being able to collect their fees from someone other than their client.

Vehicle Buy Back

A buy back is a refund of the purchase price of the vehicle, which could also include that years registration fees, the interest payments made on the loan, refund of the down payment and also payment of the outstanding loan obligation. This is in stark contrast to the Kelly Blue Book value of the vehicle, which often times is less than what you would get with the repurchase.

So, for example, If you paid $50,000 for a new 2022 Chevrolet Lemon-cadia in 2022 and, after experiencing persistent safety defects that you took it to a dealership for in California, you decide to lemon it. You retain Valero Law APC, and they get you a repurchase of the vehicle in 2024. You wouldn’t get the Kelly Blue Book value of the vehicle, which could be around $27,500 after taking into consideration depreciation over the two years you’ve owned it, wear and tear and other economic factors. We wouldn’t want to get you a refund of $27,500 (it’d almost be easier for you to just trade it in and get that amount.). Instead, we’d try to get you a refund of the $50,000 that you paid for the Lemon-cadia, which would be a much better deal for you. With that, the manufacturer could be entitled to something called a mileage offset, which will be discussed below.

Mileage Offset

The mileage offset is the amount of time you drove the car up until you took it to a dealership for a defect. This is codified in section 1793.2 (d) (2) (c), which says:

the amount to be paid by the manufacturer to the buyer may be reduced by the manufacturer by that amount directly attributable to use by the buyer prior to the time the buyer first delivered the vehicle to the manufacturer or distributor, or its authorized service and repair facility for correction of the problem that gave rise to the nonconformity. The amount directly attributable to use by the buyer shall be determined by multiplying the actual price of the new motor vehicle paid or payable by the buyer, including any charges for transportation and manufacturer-installed options, by a fraction having as its denominator 120,000 and having as its numerator the number of miles traveled by the new motor vehicle prior to the time the buyer first delivered the vehicle to the manufacturer or distributor, or its authorized service and repair facility for correction of the problem that gave rise to the nonconformity.

At bottom, the earlier you took the car to a dealership for a problem that is covered under warranty, the smaller the offset. With our $50,000 hypothetical earlier, if you took took the car to a dealership at 6,000 miles, you’d get approximately 95% of your money back. With that, though, a consumer can always try to negotiate with the manufacturer to have that offset minimized or even negated.

Cash and Keep Offer

In a lemon law cash and keep settlement, the manufacturer offers the California consumer a cash settlement exchange for letting them keep the vehicle (rather than a repurchase, where the vehicle is returned to the manufacturer).

In this case, the manufacturer agrees to compensate the customer for the difficulties brought on by the defective car with a set sum of money. If the customer is prepared to accept a monetary settlement rather than returning the vehicle for a refund or a replacement, they may select this option.

Overall, a good deal if you want to just trade in the car, but supplement the proceeds of that sale with the cash and keep settlement. 99% of the time, the repurchase is the best deal for the consumer, but sometimes it can be advantageous to take the cash and keep offer, depending on the merits of the case

Selecting Your Lemon Law Attorney

This is a given. Just hit the Contact Us form at Valero Law, APC. Everything is handled by the attorney, Joshua Valero here. So, rather than deal with the attorney’s assistant for status updates, not being able to ever get in contact with your attorney, being switched from attorney to attorney or just generally dealing with the the ‘ick’ of other lemon law attorneys in California, just give me a call or email so you can have a personalized approach to California Lemon Law