Lemon Law Tips

Lemon law covers new or leased vehicles, as well as motorcycles. The vehicles will qualify if they prove defective within the first two years or 18,000 miles. Lemon law plays a major role in protecting consumers who find themselves with a lemon. If you are not sure what a lemon is, you will find out that it is a new vehicle with reduced value due to defects even before the warranty period has expired. There are many consumers who find compensation for such injustices and the lemon law in New Jersey enables this. Therefore you need to know what to look out for in order to consider your vehicle a lemon. The first thing is that if you have taken the car to the repair shop for more than 3 times without success, you might consider your car a lemon.

The second thing is that if you have not used it for 20 days in a row, due to its broken state, you will definitely have yourself a lemon. However, if the defects were as a result of an accident, abuse, neglect or vandalism, the New Jersey lemon law will not apply to your case. Therefore, every care and maintenance instruction is vital and when you buy a new car or lease it, make sure you maintain it well to rule out carelessness and neglect on your part. Another thing you should not attempt to do is to modify the vehicle in a very serious manner which can reduce its value or alter the principle formations of the car. The first thing that you are required to do is to contact the manufacturer directly and inform him of the state of your car. If all goes well they are supposed to attempt a few repairs of their own and see what will transpire.

If the lemon does not get better the manufacturers might offer to replace your car or even give a refund. You need to be careful while making your decision so as not to be exploited. If you think that their deal is fair, there is no reason why you should not accept it. On the other hand, you are under no obligation to accept and you can simply go ahead with your case under the New Jersey lemon law. Before you file your civil suit in a court of law, you need to know that you have the option of resolving the matter with various dispute resolution programs. The first is the manufacturer dispute resolution program which is sponsored by the car manufacturers. A neutral mediator hears the case and reasonably makes a ruling. Their ruling is not binding and if it does not please you, you do not have to take it.

When you decide to go to court, you need to hire a lemon law attorney who can direct you on the best way forward. You will need to have kept all the documents relevant to this case safely. The documents include repair orders, warranty, correspondence to the manufacturer, car payment receipts and others that you might consider relevant to your case. The ruling might favor you and, you might get a compensation plus payment of all your expenses. The case might also favor the manufacturers and you have one final option. You can make an appeal to overturn the current decision. All this time, you need to be vigilant because the manufacturer also has the option to appeal.