While automobile crashes account for the majority of automotive lawsuits in the US (each year car crashes kill 40,000 people), automotive law also involves auto defect and defective automobile, predatory lending, financial fraud, automobile leasing, deceptive marketing, false advertising, and more.
Automotive lawyers can help you get a refund, upgrade or cash settlement for your defective car, truck or SUV. Several states have "Lemon Laws" to protect consumers of new cars, trucks, or SUVs from defects and failures. There may be a statute of limitations on filing lemon law lawsuits or other auto lawsuits so you should contact a lawyer as soon as possible.
Defective Automobile
Auto defects can cause devastating injuries and wrongful death lawsuits: thousands of people are injured each year due to defectively designed automobiles. Auto accidents are often the result of external causes, such as faulty or defective manufacturing of the automobile. The courts define a defective product as one that is unreasonably dangerous as designed, or the vehicle is not safe for its intended use as designed, or it is more dangerous than an ordinary consumer would expect.
Some common violations include defective brakes, bad tires and faulty air-bags. Auto defects can result in the following:
- Airbag failure caused by airbags that fail to deploy or do not deploy in a timely manner.
- Door latch failure caused by doors that open during an accident allowing passengers to be ejected.
- Gasoline fire caused by a defective gas tank or fuel line.
- Glass breakage caused by weak glass glazing that allows occupants to be ejected from the vehicle.
- Rollover accident caused by vehicles prone to rolling over.
- Roof crush caused by a weak roof that collapses into the occupant compartment during a rollover.
- Seat belt failure caused by seat belts that unlatch, tear, spool out or otherwise fail during an accident; and/or caused by weak seats that collapse backwards, thereby injuring or ejecting its occupants.
One prevalent design flaw concerns seatbacks, recliner mechanisms and seat tracks. Car manufacturers continue to ignore injury statistics that could be prevented by inexpensive design revisions to car seats that would protect passengers, especially in rear end collisions.
Defective car lawsuits may be brought against the automaker or dealer responsible for either not fixing the damage or selling it regardless of the knowledge of a defect. Automobiles with recalled parts can cause accidents and injury to purchasers who are unaware of the defects. Manufacturers can be held liable for certain accidents that occur because of faulty design or manufacturing.
In cases where the design is acceptable, there may be problems attributed to the manufacturing process of the vehicles. The manufacturer may have created a flaw in the product during the manufacturing process, whether by accident or by negligence.
Lemon Law
 A "lemon car" generally means an auto with defects. Given there are about 15,000 components in the average auto, include human error on the assembly line and it's not surprising that a substantial number of "lemon cars" are produced. The lemon law was established to protect your consumer rights by providing legal recourse after the purchase or lease of a defective new motor vehicle which fails to meet the manufacturer's warranty after a reasonable number of repair attempts.
If a manufacturer refuses or fails to offer a replacement or a refund for your lemon car, you have the legal right to file a civil action in a court of law. When you win a lemon law case, the manufacturer must:
- Provide a replacement or a refund
- Pay the consumer's costs and expenses, including attorney's fees
- The manufacturer can also be liable for a "civil penalty" of up to twice the consumer's damages (usually the price of the defective goods)
Financial Fraud
 Many car dealers use financial fraud to sell their vehicles. Car dealers can trick you out of a low car loan rate (APR) you thought you had committed to. For instance, you purchase a car and sign for a low APR. A week later the dealer phones and says you didn't qualify for that low interest - apparently the loan you thought you signed was "subject to loan approval". Then they ask you for more money and increase your payments. To avoid this scam, don't finance your car at the dealership.
Another trick, called the "Straw Purchase" happens when the dealer says you have a terrible credit score and need a co-signer. However, the dealer knows your credit score is so bad you would never qualify for a loan. He gets you to find a co-signer for the loan, but in the paper shuffle, it ends up that the "co-signer" is the actual purchaser of the vehicle.
Some car dealers can "forget to pay off your trade-in". You trade in a car that you still owe payments on, and the dealer is supposed to pay off the loan for you and add the amount to your new purchase. Then the bank calls: the dealer has not paid off the loan, the car is still in your name, the bank is charging late payments to your credit rating and you have no contract to prove that the dealer said he would pay off the loan.
Fraudulent Advertising
 In some cases an unscrupulous dealer will try to sell you a car that has been in a wreck, telling you it is in great shape. The car has the federally required "As Is, No Warranty" sticker on it, which means you cannot return the car because you agreed to accept any damages. Try to get at least a 30 day warranty from the dealer, and always check the car by its VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) number through a service like Carfax.
Some unscrupulous individuals place sale ads for a car on eBay for instance, at a price much lower than similar vehicles. Then they want you to use an escrow service they recommend to send your money to, via Western Union or other wire service. Of course the escrow company is their own company, and once you wire the money, there is no way to get it back. Never wire money, nor use the dealer's recommended escrow service.
Dealers advertise that they can get you out of your current lease or loan. However, what really happens is that the dealer pays off your lease or loan, and then adds that amount to your new lease or loan. Next, they spread out the payments so that you don't notice you are still paying for your previous car, as well as your new car, and have twice the debt you had before. |
AUTOMOTIVE ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS
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AUTOMOTIVE LAW SUITS FILED
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