Beyond Lemon Law: Obstacles to Settlement

Veteran lemon law lawyer Dani K. Liblang recently spoke at the Institute of Continuing Legal Education. Find out what she says are the biggest obstacles to settlement in a lemon law case.

Recently, the Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) asked Attorney Dani K. Liblang of The Liblang Law Firm, P.C., in Birmingham, Michigan, to share her expertise about consumer protection laws involving vehicles in a panel discussion “Beyond Lemon Law: Consumer Auto Transactions” (subscription required).

Previous blogs introduced the seminar and explored what makes a strong lemon law case, explained the discovery process, and described how settlement works. Now find out what could make settling your case more difficult.

Settlement Happens Through Alternative Dispute Resolution

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) covers a wide variety of methods lawyers and judges use to settle lawsuits. In lemon law cases, ADR often includes:

• Case Evaluation
  
• Facilitated Mediation
  
• Arbitration
  

Michigan civil cases, including lemon law claims, are routinely sent to case evaluation. Three attorneys review the parties’ summaries of the issues, sales documents, repair histories, visual aids, and other exhibits, and recommend a settlement amount they think is fair.

Unfortunately, case evaluation panelists are not usually lemon law lawyers. They often do not understand the consumer protection statutes involved. That means they will make recommendations that are bad for everyone. That’s why many lemon lawyers prefer to use private facilitated mediation, even before the case goes to case evaluation.

Setbacks to Settlement at Facilitated Mediation

In facilitated mediation, the parties and their attorneys sit down with a neutral mediator to settle their issues. But when surprises come up along the way, they can become obstacles to a successful settlement.
Complete disclosure to your attorney is essential to a successful settlement. If you fail to disclose prior accidents or the installation after-market equipment, it could come back to haunt you at the mediation table. If the vehicle defect could be tied to those surprises, the auto manufacturers’ or dealers’ attorneys may refuse to make a deal.

New or inexperienced lawyers and decision-makers can also be a problem. If a dealership relies on their general attorney, rather than hiring a lemon law specialist, that attorney might not understand how the complex statutes work, and could interfere with a reasonable settlement.

Objecting to Settlement Can Be Expensive

Some consumers insist on having their day in court, even when presented with a reasonable offer. But if you decline a case evaluation settlement recommendation and fail to do better at trial, you could be facing thousands of dollars in sanctions imposed by the court. And while Michigan’s lemon laws require defendants to pay attorney fees when they lose, as those fees add up they become a bigger hurdle to settlement.

Standing on principle can be costly. Be sure to talk to experienced lemon law lawyer Dani K. Liblang of The Liblang Law Firm, P.C., in Birmingham, Michigan to weigh your options and resolve your case at a reasonable rate. Contact The Liblang Law Firm, P.C. for a free consultation today.