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Although the Texas Lemon Law does not specifically cover boats or other watercrafts, a buyer of a new boat may still have recourse against the boat manufacturer under a different law.

The federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act can protect new boat owners, so long as the watercraft comes with a written warranty.  The Act gives defective boat owners recourse against the manufacturer; namely monetary compensation, refund, or free replacement of a defective boat.  At the same time, attorney fees and related court costs will be paid by the manufacturer, instead of the consumer.

Some boats that may be eligible for refund or replacement include: cruisers, fishing boats, sailboats, deck boats, bowriders, and yachts.  Some boat manufacturers that our law office has handled cases against includes: Bayliner, MasterCraft, Lund, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Fairline, Sea-Doo, and Lagoon.

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Hiring an attorney can be expensive, how do lemon lawyers get paid if I sue the car dealer or manufacturer?

Although the news media paints the picture that we live in a “sue happy” society.  In reality, most families are hard working people who never have the expectation of using the court system to help right a wrong or injustice in their lives.

The most common misconception is that anything that involves hiring an attorney is going to be cost prohibitive or be too expensive.  In fact, most car dealers and vehicle manufacturers want you to believe that.  Luckily, in the case of most lemon law situations, that doesn’t always have to be the case.

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A “demonstrator” vehicle, also known as a demo vehicle is a vehicle that has anywhere from 1,000 to 6,000 miles on the speedomoter and has been used by customers for test drives, or has been driven by employees of car dealerships or manufacturers for a short or limited amount of time.  I know many owners and managers of car dealerships who would drive cars and later pass these cars back to the car lot for sale.

A demo vehicle is not the same as a pre-owned or used car and the law protects a demo car owner more so than a pre-owned or used car.

Under the Texas Lemon Law, a demo is covered and the consumer is protected, on a limited basis.  The consumer still needs to take the vehicle in for multiple repair attempts or at least two times if it is considered a serious safety defect.  Feel free to contact my office regarding potential lemon law cases for pre-owned vehicles.

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It’s heartbreaking to me every time a client contacts my office and doesn’t have a strong case due to the fact that their paperwork or evidence is not in order.  For example, the client may have taken the new car in on numerous occasions because of a defect, but there are no repair invoices to substantiate the repair visit.

When someone buys a new vehicle, no one thinks that a new car, truck, or motor home needs to be taken in for repairs.  But just like life, nothing is perfect, and thank goodness there is the Texas Lemon Law to protect consumers.  When there isn’t perfection and you must waste an afternoon taking your new vehicle in and wait for it to be repaired, remember to make each visit count and worth something.  Under the Texas Lemon Law, documentation is very important.

Here are a list of “make sures” I always ask the client to be mindful of:

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Every state law pertaining to the Lemon Law has a guideline as to how many times the vehicle must be taken in for repairs in order to meet the “reasonable attempt” presumption.  Some states require a lighter burden while other states, like Texas, has a slightly heavier attempt requirement.

Under Texas Lemon Law, a reasonable attempt of four times usually trigger that the car, truck, van, SUV is most likely a lemon.  Remember that this “Four Times Test” does not apply to conditions that are inherently a serious or substantial safety hazard, such as safety belt or airbag defects.

A component to consider is that Texas Lemon Law looks to the four times defect occurring within the first 24,000 miles, or first 2 years, whichever occurs first.  This mileage requirement is not applicable to travel trailers, which has a more lax component.

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Often times, potential clients would call my office asking if the Texas Lemon Law applies to motorhomes or recreational vehicles. Under the Texas Lemon Law, the term “vehicle” includes: “Cars, trucks, motorcycles, motor homes and all terrain vehicles.” Travel trailers are also included, but must be titled and registered in Texas to be eligible.

In short, yes, motor-homes and recreational vehicles are protected under the Texas Lemon Law. Be caution that strict guidelines apply and it is important to contact a Texas Lemon Law attorney as soon as the consumer has encountered numerous repair attempts.

Also, keep in mind that written documentation of all repair work is absolutely essential to have a strong case against the dealer/manufacturer. Therefore, be organized and keep all paperwork handy and available when you contact an attorney who handles Texas lemon law related claims.

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Many clients call my law office asking about the 30 day Texas Lemon Law test. Little do they know that when the law was drafted, it was heavily lobbied by car manufacturers and dealers to work against many consumers. Here’s why:

Imagine a very narrow law that only applies to a very small percentage of people, if any. That’s the realistic outcome of the 30 day provision of the Texas Lemon Law. The 30 day test first requires that no loaner car was provided to the consumer during the period of repair. If you pass that requirement, then the law requires that your new vehicle be out of service for repair (this is where you want to make sure your repair invoices have the correct dates on it) for 30 or more days.

But hold on, the repair must be considered a “substantial” impairment, or it must “substantially” affect the market value of your new vehicle. Well, that’s easy, right?

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Lemon law litigation may be complex and there are many important things you should do to preserve a strong case against the car manufacturer. The first thing you should do is to obtain, gather, and compile all paperwork relating to your case.

Most car manufacturers will need to review your paperwork to assess your claim. Without paperwork, it will be your word against theirs. Some of my clients contest that the car dealership and service center should have the paperwork, since they issued the repair orders and invoices,…Right? The answer is yes, but getting them to relinquish a second copy of the paperwork if they know you are planning on opening a lemon law claim may be difficult.

After you have your paperwork in order, you may contact the vehicle manufacturer directly or contact attorney with experience handling lemon law cases. Having a lemon law attorney represent your cause may help you obtain a better settlement.

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The following link is from our texaslemon.com’s testimonial page. It is a testimonial (positive review) of a client of ours. In the excerpt, there is a reference to “lemon law mills.” Most people are unfamiliar with the phrase, so I thought I would write a brief blog article about it.

A “lemon law mill” is a phrase that describes a law office that concentrates its practice specifically on lemon law cases in a factory-like, volume-based, automated manner. At first thought, this isn’t such a bad thing, since experience is helpful in handling lemon law cases.

The issue is when the law office focuses its attention on the number of cases settled in order to produce profit for the firm, rather than the quality of its legal

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It’s hard to believe that seven years ago, I started this blog to provide a forum to discuss information to the public about the Texas Lemon Law. As the years past, I was hoping the lemon law will adapt and change in a way that will help consumers for the better. Unfortunately, not much, in the Texas Lemon Law, has changed. Hopefully, the lemon law for the state of Texas will be more favorable in the next seven years.

A change to the Texas Lemon Law I would like to see happen in the near future include an attorney fee shifting provision that forces the manufacturer to pay for the consumer’s attorney fee. Currently, the Texas Lemon Law program provides consumers with a chance to participate in an arbitration/hearing, the attorney fee shifting provision only applies if the car manufacturer first hires an attorney to attend the hearing.

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6244 E. Lovers Lane
Dallas , TX 75214
Phone: 1 888-333-3813 texaslemon@gmail.com

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