A Lemon Lawyer handles Lemon Law claims. What is a Lemon Law? It’s a right you have under the law to hold a carmaker accountable for defects. If you buy a bad vehicle, it can help you get your money back.
Why is a defective vehicle called a lemon?
“Lemon” has been used to describe something of low quality since the early 1900s. In British slang, a lemon was a bad item passed off as a good item. In American pool-hall slang, a lemon was a loser, or someone easily beaten by a pool hustler.
In the context of vehicles, lemon came to define things that looked good but had serious problems. The use of the term rose in the 1960s amid reports of unscrupulous auto dealers selling vehicles with known problems and extended into the 1970s as United States automakers grappled with quality issues in new vehicles.
The term was recognizable enough for Volkswagen to run its landmark “Lemon” ad campaign in 1960, and for a lemon to appear in the logo of the 1980 Kurt Russell comedy Used Cars. During these decades, it was common to refer to any vehicle with problems, and even some makes and models, as lemons.
Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and Lemon Laws
In 1975, responding to U.S. consumer complaints about defective vehicles, the United States Congress passed the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. A warranty is a legal promise by a manufacturer that a product is fit for purpose; in other words, it will work as promised for a specified period of time as long as it is not deliberately abused or used improperly.
Magnuson-Moss required all consumer product manufacturers to adopt full or limited warranties and to explain consumer rights in plain language, with the goal of allowing unhappy buyers to resolve their issues directly with manufacturers.
As is often the case, manufacturers found ways to evade their responsibilities under Magnuson-Moss. This prompted the State of Connecticut to pass the first Lemon Law in the United States in 1982, and to formally enshrine the word “lemon” in legal terminology. Under the Connecticut law, when a consumer made a successful claim for a bad vehicle, the title would then have to be stamped with the words, “MANUFACTURER BUYBACK-LEMON.” This would prevent unscrupulous dealers from claiming the vehicle was problem-free in the future.
The law became known as the Connecticut Lemon Law. Since 1982, all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia passed their own lemon laws. Many required the phrase “lemon” to be stamped on the vehicle’s title, though in some states this is referred to simply as a “manufacturer buyback.”
Why Should You Hire a Lemon Lawyer?
You do not need a lemon lawyer to file a lemon law claim, but an experienced lemon lawyer can do two important things for you. First, a lemon lawyer can tell you whether or not your claim is likely to succeed, based on their experience and the merits of your claim. Second, they will ensure that all court filings meet current standards and are backed up by relevant evidence.
A lemon law lawyer will also save you time and help you navigate what is likely an unfamiliar process. In Florida, there is no cost to hire a lemon lawyer. Your attorney is paid only if your claim is successful
Contact us online or call us at 1-786-297-8977 to ask about our rates and to tell us your story. We’ll let you know if you have a lemon law claim. You will never pay a penny out of your own pocket to hire our lemon law lawyer – we get paid only if you win.