Everything You Need To Know About Lemon Law
What is a lemon and how can a lemon law attorney help you? Today on the blog, I sat down with Michelle Fonseca-Kamana, California Lemon Law Attorney to learn all about lemon law. Michelle is the founder of West Coast Lemons and specializes specifically in lemon law. Since my specialty in the auto industry to car sales and reviews I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to sit down with another female entrepreneur to learn all about her expertise. She is extremely knowledgable and we had a blast chatting!
To give you some context, each state has its own lemon law (Michelle is obviously most well versed in California) but there is also a federal lemon law. Michelle says the federal lemon law “helps the states that might not have very strong protection.”
I asked Michelle to give a brief overview of what a lemon is, how a lemon law attorney can help, and what to do if you think you may have a lemon. For the entire conversation, watch the video!
What is a Lemon?
“A lemon is a vehicle that cannot be repaired to match the manufacturer’s warranty after a reasonable amount of repair attempts. Typically we see this with cars and trucks.”
When is your car considered a lemon?
Just because your new car needs a repair it doesn’t mean you have a lemon. I asked Michelle when is it time to begin building your lemon law case?
“The most popular way I guess to build a lemon law case is the multiple repair attempts for the same or similar issue. So at least in California usually you want to get to about four repair visits for the same issue and still have it be un-repaired.”
“It’s also not just any old defect, it has to be something substantial. So across the board most states have a criteria that it has to substantially impair the use, value or safety of your vehicle. So thats your transmission issues, engine issues, check engine lights…. major components have to be failing for you to be able to prove you have a lemon.”
If you think you have a lemon, what is the end goal of building a lemon law case?
“The end goal is a repurchase or a replacement. The buyback would be a return of your downpayment, your payments, your loan is paid off, they’ll also reimburse you for reasonable rental, towing and repair costs but there are some deductions.”
How common are lemons?
“They’re pretty common! Luckily, I’ve been able to make a business out of it. But it’s kind of a numbers game. Not all of them are going to come out of production 100% and honestly the more technology we keep putting into the vehicle there’s going to be a learning curve there. So I see a lot of issues with newer model year vehicles while they work out the kinks.”
Why would someone need a lemon lawyer? Is it something they could do on their own?
“It’s a little bit of both! So they way I actually handle my cases is I coach my clients through handling it on their own because they’re going to get a faster response from the manufacturer and it actually builds their case up to be a lot stronger if we do need to file a lawsuit. For the most part I think, lemon law attorneys provide free consultations across the country because we are eligible to get attorneys fees back because of the federal lemon law.”
“You are able to handle it on your own to be honest, its just helpful to have that advice of ‘you need to say these magic words’ or maybe wait until you get that fourth repair visit, double check the repair orders, stuff like that and for the most part it is free of charge to consumers so you really don’t lose anything.”
We also asked Michelle about which brands she sees most often as lemons, when to take action if you think you may have a lemon and what happens to the car if deemed a lemon. All those questions and more are answered in our full interview here!
For more car tips, check out these other blog posts:
If you are in California and think you may have a lemon visit westcoastlemons.com or call Michelle’s office at 714-804-5546. Also, follow Michelle on Instagram! She posts all kinds of great tips and is so much fun to follow!
