Safety and the Lemon Law

What are the requirements that define an unsafe car in the lemon law?

It’s difficult. There’s a bit of “Catch-22” involved.

The manufacturer would prefer to think nothing is a safety issue until your car is a smoking ruin beside the freeway, by which time as far as the driver and his passengers are concerned, it much too late.

The driver, on the other hand may hear every rattle and squeak as a signal that the end is near. Somewhere between the two is reality. In California Lemon Law there is what is called the presumption. Regarding safety it states in part:

If any of the following occurs within the first 18 months or 18,000 miles: “…The same defect is subject to repair two or more times, and is a serious safety defect that is likely to cause death or bodily injury.”

There’s more to the presumption and we’ll mention that in subsequent posts. What we want to make note of is the part that says “…serious safety defect that is likely to cause death or bodily injury.”

Exaggeration won’t do. It often comes down to the manufacturers legal representatives assessing your demand and having to make a judgment as to whether you and your legal representatives can convince a jury that the defects may cause death or bodily injury. If they think not then you may be forced into a lengthy litigation process.

Here are a few examples that clearly are life-threatening:

• Your car loses power and the engine dies on the freeway in traffic.
• You are coming to an intersection; you try to brake and the pedal goes to the floor.
• Any defect in the suspension which is severe enough to cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

There are many more. The point however, is that you may have to prove the seriousness of the defect. If there are witnesses to any unsafe incidents, if possible, get their statements. I know this is hard to think of when your engine dies and you’ve just coasted to the side of the freeway, narrowly missing being strained through the grill of a semi.

We have heard enough of these cases to know there are a lot of you out there with gray hair you didn’t get sitting by the pool. Let’s hear about your experiences and talk about it.

Norman Taylor & Associates

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