Lemon Law Attorney
California Acts to Bar Gags in Defect Cases
|
|
CALIFORNIA motorists who obtain restitution from auto makers for defective vehicles may no longer have to promise they will stay quiet as part of their settlements. California lawmakers passed a bill this week that would bar auto makers from imposing ‘’gag rules'’ in agreements to repurchase cars or trucks that are deemed defective under the state’s lemon laws. The bill, that would be the first in the nation, awaits the signature of Gov. Pete Wilson, and some of his aides have indicated he is likely to sign it. Vows of silence over the settlement terms of a court case, or details of a matter resolved privately, are common in disputes involving medical malpractice, product liability and corporate malfeasance. Increasingly, consumer advocates say, these secrecy clauses are being written into auto makers’ agreements to buy back badly flawed vehicles. Some regulators say the gags erode their oversight by making it hard for them to track vehicles that have been branded as lemons. The Chrysler Corporation’s reselling of 116 such defective vehicles is central to a two-year legal fight between the company and California’s Department of Motor Vehicles. In June, a Superior Court judge ordered the dispute to be reconsidered again, and, in effect, reinstated the proposed penalty – the harshest by any state for violations of lemon laws. The penalty, which has yet to take effect, would bar Chrysler from shipping cars or trucks to the state for 45 days. Chrysler has denied any wrongdoing. Annually, about 100,000 vehicles are repurchased by auto makers because of defects, including 5,000 to 10,000 in California, said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington. He said consumer complaints often prompted investigations by Federal safety officials. ‘’If the gags are widespread, you’re going to dry up the source of complaints,'’ he said. More : query.nytimes.com |
Related Articles from Attorney for Lemon Law
What to do if your new car’s a lemon.
Don't let your dealer wear you down. Here's how to get your money back or a replacement auto. In its first two and a half years, Jeff Littrell's red Mazda RX7 spewed smoke from under the hood, required a new motor, rattled and thumped, and spent a total of four months in dealer repair shops. The 34-year-old California computer consultant sued the manufacturer. Almost a year later, Littrell returned the vehicle and pocketed a $44,299 award - which covered his purchase price, legal fees, and interest. New-car nightmares aren't rare. "We believe at least 1 million lemons are sold each
Porsche returns to court.(Legal File)
The California Court of Appeal has revived a breach of implied warranty lawsuit stemming from a spontaneous fire that destroyed a 2000 Porsche Boxster S. Under the state's lemon law, the owner won't have to prove that a specific defect in the car, which had been...
Calif. signs tougher lemon law.
California Gov. Gray Davis last week signed a tough new lemon law that allows consumers to take legal action to replace a vehicle after just two failed attempts to repair the same defect. The previous law required four attempts at repair. The ``two strikes'' provision, however,...
State high courts tackle punitives.
Punitive damages are under attack again, this time in state supreme courts. The Center for Constitutional Litigation (CCL)--building on expertise it developed in U.S. Supreme Court cases like State Farm v. Campbell, Cooper v. Leatherman, and BMW v. Gore---is helping defend plaintiffs' rights to seek punitive damages. Three recent cases are likely to shape the law for years to come in Oregon and California--and perhaps in other states. Oregon Supreme Court Philip Morris USA, Inc. v. Williams. On June 9, 2004, the Oregon Court of...
FOLLOW-UP ON THE NEWS; Lemon Law
As State Representative John J. Woodcock 3d of Connecticut saw it, the legal deck was stacked against the new-car buyer who got a defective product. ''The financial and emotional squeeze of a lemon car,'' he declared in April 1982, ''must be put on the manufacturer, where it belongs.'' Before the month was out, the Representative's bill had passed the Connecticut General Assembly and had become the nation's first Lemon Law. It defined a lemon as a new car with a substantial defect that had not been repaired in four attempts, or a car whose defects had kept it out of