What Is The Lemon Law - A Concise Definition

By: Earl Powers

Lemon law refers to the statement from the government that was created to protect consumers from defective piece of automobile. An automobile that has manufacturing defect or if it asks for repeated repairs after purchase and if the automobile is under warranty period, such a vehicle is termed as a lemon.

A law was placed for the benefit of consumers to prevent them from a lemon vehicle. In a nut shell if any vehicle such as a car is under warranty period and is suffering from various defects that prevent a consumer to use the vehicle effectively then Lemon law act or the Magnuson Moss Act comes into force.

Lemon law can be enforced on any sort of vehicle like a car, truck, van, SUV, motorcycle, boat or computer, etc. If any of these consumer durables is found to be defective then the consumer is entitled for either money back, replacement or a cash settlement. The law can be consulted with a Lemon law attorney as various states have different lemon laws. Some states have a lemon law for only the automobiles but some also include other consumer durables like computers, etc.

A dealer or manufacturer should have made number of attempts to repair the vehicle before being declared as lemon. Usually three or more attempts in row over a short period of time are required for any vehicle to be termed as lemon. Lemon law is also applicable to vehicles which have been resold but are still under warranty and meet the mileage and time criteria. More often it is very difficult to persuade a manufacturer to accept a lemon vehicle. In such cases a lemon suit is often called for.

To ensure whether a vehicle is a lemon or not one should observe certain conditions of the vehicle before pursuing a lemon law suit. A vehicle should exhibit some serious defect or some abnormal condition. Such a condition should be covered by manufacturer’s warranty. Number of attempts for repair should also be taken into account before preparing a lemon law suit. A written notice should have also been issued to the manufacturer prior to a lemon law suit.

A vehicle that has been bought back by the manufacturer from the customer is known as a Lemon Buy Back. Such lemon buy backs are often sold in auctions as used cars by the manufacturers.

The Lemon law enforced for protecting consumers from the lemon vehicles is Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. This lemon law states that any advertised guarantee should explicitly state relevant information about a warranty. This law ensures that any warranty for goods above $15 should be clearly expressed on the goods and should be clear and easy to understand. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty act enables a consumer to bring suit to any manufacturer, supplier, warrantor, or service contractor for any defective piece of good or services.

A lemon vehicle explicitly loses market value due to its manufacturing defect. Moreover, manufacturing defects may lead to several life threatening circumstances. It also substantially impedes a person's ability to control or operate a motor vehicle for ordinary use or intended purposes. Any manufacturing defect can also create a substantial risk of fire or explosion. All these risk elements call for enforcement of Lemon law in the states of United States. This law helps consumer from all such threats and hazardous circumstances.

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Earl Powers, US Lawyer and Lemon Law expert - focusing on Used Car Lemon Laws and What Is The Lemon Law

Lemon Law - Make A Lemonade From Your Sour Experience

By: Amit Laufer

Lemon Law Background

The term “Lemon-Law” is a nick name derived from other common terms such as “Lemon-Car”, “Monday-cars” and “Friday-Cars”.

A lemon car is a defective car that, when purchased new or used, is found by the purchaser to have numerous or severe defects not readily apparent before the purchase. Any vehicle with these issues can be termed a "lemon car" and by extension, any product which has major flaws that render it unfit for its
purpose can be described as a "lemon product".

New vehicles directly from the factory may contain hidden mechanical flaws or defects in workmanship, usually caused by an error during the build process of the car.

These errors can range from parts being installed incorrectly, a tool that was used to build the car not being removed, a batch of materials with structural or chemical flaws or simply bad design. Usually, a car is labeled a lemon if the same problem occurs 3 times in a row over a short period, and previous attempts at repair have not repaired the problem. In most cases, if you get a lemon, lemon laws will make the company buy back the car or exchange it.

Many of you might remember that during the late eighties the average American consumer almost lost faith completely with the American made cars.

The amount of lemon cars along with the high rate of over the average visits to the car garages as well as the high repairs and spare parts cost, caused many Americans to switch to Japanese and even European cars.

This was a period of time when Americans were reluctant to go to the dealers garages and preferred to go to oil & lube services only.

At that time Lee Iacocca the CEO of Chrysler Corp identified immediately the problem of mistrust of American consumers in American made cars, Chrysler launched a campaign on national TV promising to provide a bumper-to-bumper warranty coverage for 50,000 miles or five years, which ever comes first! Then GM came with the answer of 60,000 miles or 6 years, which ever comes first! Chrysler returned with the final stroke of 70,000 miles or 7 years which ever comes first.

Few months later I went to the Buick main dealer garage in long Island,I was seating in the waiting room, next to me was a very nervous guy, I asked him why was he so upset with the garage, he explained to me that even though he had this bumper-to-bumper warranty It doesn't cover labor and the damn car is more than a week in the garage and they don't seems to be able to find what is the problem with the car...

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is Known as the "Lemon Law"

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is a United States federal law codified at 15 USC 50. Enacted in 1975, it is the federal statute that governs warranties on consumer products.

The Act was sponsored by Senators Warren G. Magnuson of Washington and Frank Moss of Utah, both Democrats.

State Lemon Laws have some differences like coverage of motorcycles and used vehicles, but there are some basic guidelines that they do share. (See 50 state by state Lemon Law Summaries at: http://autopedia.com/html/HotLinks_Lemon2.html).

In passing the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, Congress specified a number of requirements that warrantors must meet. Congress also directed the FTC to adopt rules to cover other requirements.

The FTC adopted three Rules under the Act, the Rule on Disclosure of Written Consumer Product Warranty Terms and Conditions (the Disclosure Rule), the Rule on Pre-Sale Availability of Written Warranty Terms (the Pre-Sale Availability Rule), and the Rule on Informal Dispute Settlement Procedures (the Dispute Resolution Rule).

In addition, the FTC has issued an interpretive rule that clarifies certain terms and explains some of the provisions of the Act. This section summarizes all the requirements under the Act and the Rules.

The Act and the Rules establish three basic requirements that may apply to a warrantor or a seller.

A. As a warrantor, you must designate, or title, your written warranty as either "full" or "limited."

B. As warrantor, you must state certain specified information about the coverage of your warranty in a single, clear and easy to read document.

C. As a warrantor or a seller, you must ensure that warranties are available where your warranted consumer products are sold so that consumers can read them before buying.

The laws define what a lemon car is and require that the manufacturer, not the dealer, takes care of the defects. If a number of attempts have been made to repair a defect that significantly impairs the use, value or safety of a car and the car continues to have this defect, the car is than considered to be a "lemon".

Most statutes set up a warranty rights period of either 12 to 24 months or 12,000 to 24,000 miles. The defect(s) must occur sometime during this period.

Many of the state laws contain specific guidelines as to what constitutes a sufficient number of attempts to repair, and whether these attempts entitle the consumer to a refund or replacement. These are:

a. If the defect is a serious safety defect involving brakes and or steering, the manufacturer is granted one attempt to repair.

b. If there is a safety defect that is not considered a serious safety defect, the manufacturer has two attempts to repair.

c. For any other defect, the manufacturer is usually given three or four chances to repair the same defect.

d. If at any time the vehicle is in the shop for a cumulative total of 30 days in a one year period, with at least one of those days occurring the first 12,000 miles.

If any one of these of these guidelines can be satisfied, the consumer is usually given the right to require repurchase or replacement of his/her vehicle.

Most lemon laws do allow an offset for use of the vehicle by the consumer. Oftentimes, a reduction in the consumer's purchase price return is used in relation to the number of miles he/she had put on the car. One law spells out the reduction in refund for use as follows:

(miles at time of refund X purchase price)/100,000

Only about one half of the lemon laws allow the consumer to recover attorney's fees in his/her action. Those states that do allow attorney's fees provide for a greater likelihood of success and representation in warranty disputes.

What the Magnuson-Moss Act – Lemon Law, Does Not Require

First, the Act does not require any business to provide a written warranty. The Act allows businesses to determine whether to warrant their products in writing. However, once a business decides to offer a written warranty on a consumer product, it must comply with the Act.

Second, the Act does not apply to oral warranties. Only written warranties are covered.

Third, the Act does not apply to warranties on services. Only warranties on goods are covered. However, if your warranty covers both the parts provided for a repair and the workmanship in making that repair, the Act does apply to you. (Source: http://www.ftc.gov/index.html).

Finally, the Act does not apply to warranties on products sold for resale or for commercial purposes. The Act covers only warranties on consumer products. This means that only warranties on tangible property normally used for personal, family, or household purposes are covered. (This includes property attached to or installed on real property.) Note that applicability of the Act to a particular product does not, however, depend upon how an individual buyer will use it.

Article Source: http://www.cajun101.com


Amit Laufer is a Writer & Internet Marketer MBA – International Trade & Finance. Bsc. Computers Information Systems. Owner Editor of: www.lemonlaw-cars.com/”>Lemon Law

Revealing The Truth Behind The Garnishment Laws

By: Henry Byers

Garnishment law has been in force to improvise the mode of collection of payment for the money due towards the federal government or any other creditor. Garnishment law also states wage garnishment according to which the money is deducted directly from the person’s salary after assessing the monthly expenses vis-à-vis monthly income.

Garnishment law can be levied by any agency and is not limited to the IRS. Any private creditor, federal government department, or even an ex-spouse can claim garnishment of the money overdue. Garnishment law can also be enacted towards the child support expenses. But for all agencies apart from the government department a court order is required to enforce the garnishment law.

Garnishment is taken as a part of payroll process. If the person is unable to pay the amount due as credit then the correct order for collecting the money has been stipulated in the garnishment law. According the garnishment law, the garnishment due to towards the federal government is to be collected first. Thereafter the money due towards state tax or local tax garnishment and lastly garnishment for credit cards falls in order.

Garnishment law in some states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Texas, etc do not allow wage garnishment at all except those related to taxes, child support, court order fines, federally-guaranteed student loans, etc. some states allow all kinds of garnishments even those levied by the private creditors. In some states garnishment law states maximum 25% of the disposable earnings to be levied as amount due towards payment.

Garnishment law also states types of garnishment law called as attachment. According to attachment the garnishee needs to hand over all the money or property during the service of process of the court. This type of garnishment as stated in the garnishment law is required only against institutions like banks, or other companies that face liquidated obligations in the regular course of the business.

The money withheld from any individual’s paycheck is handed over to the creditor or the agency towards which the amounts is due. Therefore it is suggested that while filing returns one must include the amount garnished from the wages. The garnishment law authorizes the pay of active, retired or reserve personnel to be garnished towards child or spouse support. As per the garnishment law, the garnishment says in effect until the total amount due towards the federal government of the agency is paid up or until the IRS department releases the garnishment.

According the wage garnishment law an individual’s salary, wages, or other income can be levied. It prevents the employee to be fired from the job in hand. If the employer fires the employee because of garnishment proceedings, then it is violation of garnishment law. Also the employer can be fined for the same. The Wage and Hour division of the Department of Labor determines the violation of the law. The IRS does not do this job.

Article Source: http://www.cajun101.com


Henry Byers, Retired IRS Manager and Garnishment Laws expert - focusing on Wage Garnishment and IRS Wage Garnishment

Lemon Law - The Basics

By: Jack Smith

Most people when the think of the word lemon, they think the sour, tangy and yellow fruit. What some people don’t know is that the word "lemon" also has a slang meaning that has become very popular over the years, especially in the automotive industry. This slang is commonly known as "Lemon Law"

Even though the term lemon is more commonly used to describe a cheap and junky car, it can be used for just about any merchandise that is faulty, poorly made, or broken. For example; someone is walking home one day and sees a flashy watch on sale. They try the watch on, checking over to make sure nothing was wrong with it and decide to buy it. When they get home it stops working and it appears broken. They call their friend and tell them "I bought this watch today, it looked like such a good deal, but when I got it home, it turned out to be a lemon!" This is only an example and one must realize that "lemons" exist in nearly all forums of products and services.

Using the word lemon this way has most likely become increasingly popular due to the many companies and crooked car sales men selling faulty products. In fact there is even a "Lemon Law" that obligates manufacturers or sellers to repair, replace, or refund the price of a motor vehicle if it proves to be defective. It is a good idea to become familiar with this law so that if you happen to purchase a lemon from a reputable manufacture, you can probably sue them for your money back.

If you are about to file a lemon lawsuit, you will undoubtedly need a lemon lawyer. Lemon lawyers are usually available for a fair price; however, you need to watch out so that you don’t hire yourself a lemon to fight a lemon!

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Jack Smith writes about various legal aid, lawsuit, lemon lawyer, and criminal lawyer topics. This article is free to re-print as long as nothing is changed, all links remained intact, the bio remains in full and the rel="nofollow" tag is not added to any of the links. Thank-you - Please visit this employment labor attorney resource for more Legal Aid Lawyer resources!

What A Divorce Lawyer Is Going To Do For You

By: George Royal

Getting a divorce is not something anyone looks forward to and it is certainly not something that we plan for when we get married. Unfortunately divorce is a reality for many people in many different situations. If you are getting a divorce or even just considering it then you need to be sure to choose the right divorce lawyer.

You will find many a divorce lawyer in your area but be aware that not all of them are as good as others. You need to have the best divorce lawyer that you can afford when it comes to your divorce. If you don't you could end up paying much more than you though and I am not talking about the divorce lawyer fees. I am talking settlement or even alimony or palimony. Then there is custody to consider if you have children. So take care with your divorce lawyer choice.

When you are trying to get a divorce your divorce lawyer is going to petition the courts to get your marriage dissolved. This means coming to an agreement in terms of all property and money that you as a couple have had possession of. There are several grounds for divorce and your divorce lawyer will help you to choose the grounds that suit your particular situation the best. You will have the choice of adultery, time apart, unreasonable behavior and sometimes even fraud or irreconcilable differences are the way to go. Bottom line is that you should never make any important decisions concerning your divorce without first talking things over with your divorce lawyer. Your divorce lawyer is the professional who has the experience that will help you through this trying time.

What will your divorce lawyer be doing all of the time they are working for you? Your divorce lawyer will spend most of his or her time working on the distribution of conjugal property. How your property is divided will depend on a couple of things. Some of these things will be how much there is to begin with and how much belonged to whom before the marriage, the length of the marriage and the place in which you live. Every country, even every state has its own rules concerning the distribution of property and only your divorce lawyer will be able to help you make all of the right decisions.

Your divorce lawyer is considered to be your legal representation. This means that this divorce lawyer is the person who will often speak for you in court and out of court. Your divorce lawyer needs to be present at every meeting that you have with your spouse’s lawyer or your spouse. Never talk about the case without your divorce lawyer being present and on hand. You never know what you could say that could jeopardize your divorce case, it is far better to be safe than sorry.

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