How does lemon law protect a consumer?
The lemon law provides the legal basis for consumers to file claims seeking compensation for a vehicle or major consumer product where the manufacturer or dealer in unable to repair a defect within a reasonable number of attempts. The manufacturer’s liability may be reduced in proportion to the value of use of a vehicle. When a court offsets an award due to the owner’s use of the vehicle, typically the only use that offsets the award is that which took place prior to the first time the consumer brought the vehicle back to the manufacturer or dealer for the un-repairable defect. Manufacturers sometimes try to negotiate much larger offsets with consumers. This type of negotiating practice violates the law. Under Song-Beverly, the manufacturer is only entitled to an offset equal to the fraction of the purchase price. This fraction consists of a numerator made up of the number of miles at the time of the consumer’s first repair attempt and a denominator of 120,000, a figure designated by t
