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Often times, consumers who purchased lemon cars call my office to seek guidance under the Texas Lemon Law, but I have yet to encounter a potential client that has done this before…

To signify that the vehicle she purchased is a lemon, Christy Direnzo painted yellow lemons and the car dealership’s name on a car she purchased from DJ Enterprises. Thereafter, she parked it near the dealership to warn other car buyers. When she purchased the car, she was informed it only needed $300 worth of repairs. She soon found out it needed approximately $1,500 in repairs.

Another car buyer in Charleston, South Carolina, Mary Grodjeski, also bought a truck from the same dealership. A few weeks later, the transmission and engine went out. Both women tried to take the vehicles back to the dealership in order to get their money back, but were refused. The dealership claims that the vehicle was sold “as-is.”

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Jalopnik, an online website dedicated to car fanatics, recently posted a guide to lemon laws. Although the discussion on this article did not mention specific Texas Lemon Law, it is still worth a good read to learn about general lemon laws and other related laws that might be helpful to consumers with broken cars.

The article also mentions information about the Magnuson Moss Act, one way arbitration programs, and the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) AutoLine Lemon Law program. Unfortunately, the article attributed Kate Moss to being the co-author of the Magnuson Moss Act — it is actually Frank E. Moss.

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With Chrysler’s recent announcement of 500,000 recalled vehicles, it is very possible that there may be a Texas lemon law issue involved here. The recall pertains to 2001 – 2002 Dodge vehicles for the following models: Dakota trucks, Durango sport utility vehicles (SUV), Ram vans, and Ram pickup.

The reason for the recall is due to faulty gearshift blocker and bracket assembly components. With a faulty gearshift blocker or bracket assembly, your vehicle could shift out of park, even your without your key being in the ignition. No, this is nothing similar to the robot autopilot car I wrote about several weeks ago.

So far, there has been 9 known nonfatal injuries related to this product defect.

Unfortunately, Chrysler will not be notifying owners of this vehicle until January 2008. It seems like this is a terribly irresponsible thing to do, especially since it took Chrysler 6 to 7 years to finally announce a defect on its 2001/2002 model vehicles and the fact that nine injuries and incidents had to occur before the Detroit-based company is willing to do anything about the issue. Now, they’re going to wait an additional minimum of 21 days to let owners know about it. What if a Chrysler car owner suffers from this defect from now until January? …and what if this 10th incident becomes fatal?
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Often times, my Dallas based lemon law office cannot accept certain potential lemon car cases due to insufficient documentation. What I mean by this is that a consumer might have a very strong lemon law claim, but the potency of their claim has been watered down because of several new techniques that car service centers are using to avoid liability under the Texas Lemon Law.

When a consumer brings a car in for a concern or complaint of a car defect such as “engine noises while driving,” the service center is required to document the repair attempt by issuing a repair order for the consumer’s visit. Under the Texas Lemon Law, the best way to prove up that you have met one of the 3 prong rebuttable presumption to win your case is through repair invoices.

The first trick that car dealerships use to avoid liability is to conveniently forget to print out repair invoices for the consumer. If you’ve left a car dealership without a repair order in your hand when you pick up your car, then you’ve done yourself an injustice. If the dealership says that it does not issue out repair invoices for this type of repair, …or the repair is too small to constitute additional paperwork,…or “we couldn’t find anything wrong”…then you must ask yourself, why are they abandoning normal protocol of issuing out repair invoices to document their time at work?…especially since authorized repair work that has been done under warranty is usually charged or reimbursed to the manufacturer at pre-determined rates and arrangements.
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Texas Lemon Law has a clearly defined three-prong approach on which vehicles are eligible for a lemon law buyback or replacement.

Under Section 2301.605 of the Texas Occupations Code (Title 14, Subtitle A, Chapter 2301, Sub-chapter A), it states in relevant part that a vehicle meets the rebuttable presumption if:

(1) “…the same nonconformity continues to exist after being subject to repair four or more times…,”

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Too often, consumers are left in the dark about their Texas Lemon Law rights.

Although the internet may be a great resource to research, it may be cluttered with non-specific information about general lemon laws, as opposed to state specific Texas Lemon Law. Other times, it may be cluttered with complex legalese that is difficult to understand.

If you go to my main website, you will find a power point presentation that provides you with a quick summary about the Texas Lemon Law. The power point presentation is located on the right side of the screen, right underneath where it says, “We DO NOT Accept PREOWNED Lemon Law cases.” Or, you can click here.

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Almost less than four weeks before Thanksgiving, the Department of Defense (DOD) sponsored a robot car race. The winning robot car was an overly-accessorized Chevrolet Tahoe sports utility vehicle (SUV) with a brain of its own and the ability to drive itself on various roads and terrains.

Suffice to say, this robot SUV, unlike most of the other SUV cases I have handled, is clearly not a lemon. …At least not yet.

The vehicle was able to drive on its own without human intervention for approximately six hours for sixty miles. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed, because my recent road trip from Dallas to Houston, Texas was only 4 hours and it was quite a long and stressful drive. Having an affordable consumer friendly robot car that takes you to your desired destinations might be such a far-fetched notion any longer.

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Last month, I compared the current Texas Lemon Law with Australia’s upcoming lemon law and also provided information on how Australia’s new lemon law invites feedback from the Australian public.

This morning, I received notice of a public hearing at the Wangaratta (Australia) forum yesterday, where consumers and the public are being asked to provide input and ideas of what requirements to include and exclude in the lemon law for new cars.

So far, it seems like Consumer Affairs Minister, Tony Robinson is doing a great job of investigating the issues surrounding the responsibly of drafting a car lemon law that would be beneficial to the people it is intended to help, consumers. At the forum, Mr. Robinson states that a motor car is the second largest purchase that Victorians make. He also mentions that currently in Australia, most car manufacturers are only required to repair defects, not replace or refund broken cars.

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As an attorney who frequently handles Texas lemon law cases, I often receive calls from potential clients regarding lemon law coverage for non-vehicles such as computers, electronics, and other consumer household items.

Unfortunately, at this time, the Texas lemon law does not extend to non-vehicle related items (other state and federal consumer warranty laws may help you instead). One alternative is to look up the dealer or supplier of the wheelchair and file a Better Business Bureau claim (BBB) against the people who made or sold the wheelchair.

Interestingly, this morning, I came across a very interesting article today regarding lemon laws for wheelchairs, but only if you purchased the wheelchair within the state of New Jersey. The “wheelchair lemon law” was enacted a little over ten years ago to protect NJ residents from manufacturers of defective lemon wheelchairs.

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Regardless of whether you are scheduled to attend either the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Arbitration or the Texas lemon law administrative hearing (in order to get a lemon vehicle buyback or replacement), it is important to be prepared with essential documents that will help you win your case.

Before proceeding further, I must caution you that although I am an attorney who concentrates my practice to Texas lemon law related cases, that the information found here is not and should not be treated as legal advice. The reason is because every case, regardless of how similar, is different. Therefore, this information is simply a public service presentation and you should contact a Texas lemon law attorney as soon as possible in the event that you have recently purchased a new lemon car.

Because both of the above-mentioned programs generally do not have an attorney fee shifting provision that requires the car manufacturer to pay for your attorney fees if you prevail — having an attorney represent you in these hearing can be cost prohibitive. Under Texas lemon law, the only time the attorney fee shifting can be invoked by the consumer is when the automobile manufacturer is represented by an attorney at the hearing.

Documentation is key at the hearing. You must have written proof that your car meets the rebuttable presumption of the program. For example, if you are arguing that your car is a lemon because it has been subject to repairs for the illumination of the check engine light, then having for documented repair invoices issued by the service center will solidify your case, rather than relying on the arbitrator or administrative judge to take your word for it.
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