This is the property of the Daily Journal Corporation and fully protected by copyright. It is made available only to Daily Journal subscribers for personal or collaborative purposes and may not be distributed, reproduced, modified, stored or transferred without written permission. Please click "Reprint" to order presentation-ready copies to distribute to clients or use in commercial marketing materials or for permission to post on a website. and copyright (showing year of publication) at the bottom.
Subscribe to the Daily Journal for access to Daily Appellate Reports, Verdicts, Judicial Profiles and more...

Consumer Protection Law

Jun. 13, 2024

The Song-Beverly Act's fee-shifting: Lemon law cases proliferate

Manufacturers should evaluate repurchase demands as soon as possible, as they can avoid civil penalties and high attorneys’ fees by resolving the claims before the filing of a lawsuit.

Liam E. Felsen

Partner, Frost Brown Todd LLP

Product Liablility

Shutterstock

California's Song-Beverly Act provides some of the nation's strongest pro-consumer statutes, providing remedies which include not only a full repurchase but also (potentially) double civil penalties plus (and this is the real issue) the consumer's costs/expenses and attorneys' fees. Likely due to this fee-shifting (given that attorneys' fees are often higher than the cost of the product itself), recently the number of Song-Beverly Act lemon law claims filed against ma...

To continue reading, please subscribe.
For only $95 a month (the price of 2 article purchases)
Receive unlimited article access and full access to our archives,
Daily Appellate Report, award winning columns, and our
Verdicts and Settlements.
Or
$795 for an entire year!

Or access this article for $45
(Purchase provides 7-day access to this article. Printing, posting or downloading is not allowed.)

Already a subscriber?

Sign up for Daily Journal emails