By Herb Shuldiner

Motor Matters

Manufacturers say that he’s the proprietor of “Lemon Law Mill,” but attorney Craig T. Kimmel shrugs that off and keeps winning cases for car owners whose vehicles spend more time in the shop than on the road.

Kimmel is cofounder of a law firm with 12 attorneys and a backup staff of 40, including three full-time mechanics, that initiates about 24 percent of all car lemon law cases filed in the U.S. annually.

So far, his firm has forced manufacturers to buy back about 10,000 vehicles, and has recovered more than $100 million in other compensation for owners of lemon cars. Ironically, Kimmel was prodded into being a tormentor of auto manufacturers because of his love of cars. He worked his way through law school as an auto mechanic and, with the income, bought a Ford sports car.

However, the paint on the Ford self-destructed shortly after he bought the car. Ford didn’t give him any satisfaction, refusing to repaint the car. So Kimmel dragged them into court, but never really got the car to look the way it was when it was brand new. That experience, however, moved Kimmel to become a consumer attorney specializing in lemon law cases. He and his firm, Kimmel & Silverman, have handled 24,000 lemon law cases in their Pennsylvania and New Jersey offices.

Every state has a vehicle lemon law that gives consumers a weapon to hold over car makers’ heads if their car becomes a mechanical clunker. The laws vary from state to state, but generally, if a new car has a defect that can’t be fixed in three or four trips to the shop in the first 12-24 months you’ve owned it, manufacturers could be required to buy the vehicle back.

In addition, the states define a vehicle as a lemon if it spends 30 days in the shop during the first year or two of ownership. Some states specify calendar days while others count business days. The laws are even stricter when it comes to safety systems, such as brakes and steering. A car may become a lemon if the manufacturer can’t get those systems fixed in one attempt. Some state lemon laws even cover used cars and motorcycles.

If you have a car that you think is a lemon, there are a number of options on how to get satisfaction. All companies have a procedure that’s laid out in the owner’s manual on how you can get your car fixed if the dealer can’t seem to fix a defect. If this fails, most manufacturers offer an arbitration procedure.

The Better Business Bureau also offers arbitration in car lemon disputes. Information about the BBB arbitration program for car lemons is available on their Web site. The BBB can help consumers who have a warranty complaint; or a car problem that falls under their particular state’s lemon law; and file consumer lemon law complaints that could result in lemon law repurchase, or lemon law replacement.

Visit www.bbb.com.

Many states – but not all – o offer arbitration after filing a small fee, usually through the attorney general’s office. However, if you don’t feel confident that you can prevail in such proceedings, you can also retain an attorney to pursue your case.

There are a number of other Web sites where you can find attorneys who specialize in lemon law cases. One such site is www.lemonlawamerica.com. It provides information on the lemon laws in every state and Washington, DC. Standard practice is for lemon law attorneys to take the cases on contingency – receiving their fees from manufacturers of lemons in the settlement obtained for their clients.

The overwhelming number of cases Kimmel handles are settled without going to trial he says. That saves manufacturers the cost of going to trial and running up big fees for the lawyers who represent consumers. Kimmel has no firm number, but guesses that about 25,000 vehicle lemons are repurchased annually. Consumers in these cases are offered a choice of turning back a defective vehicle and getting their money back, or receiving a replacement, if they desire.

Lemon laws in most states allow manufacturers to deduct an amount based on the amount of mileage a driver has run up on a car when making the settlement, but some states, such as Wisconsin, mandate a full refund of vehicle price and registration.