Punitive damages and Lemon Law

Lemon Laws are laws that safeguard the interests of consumers by preventing against fraudulent transactions on the part of the dealer. Lemon Laws implemented in most states, and are quite popular in the car sales area. According to the Lemon Law, a dealer or a seller should compensate or replace a defective product for the customer, if the defect occurred within a specified period of time post the sale. The norms governing this are not the same in every state. This article details the Lemon Law applicable and implemented in the state of Pennsylvania.

More in to the law

According to the Pennsylvania Lemon Law, it is the responsibility of the dealer to rectify or fix the defect or impairment found in a new product, if said defect occurred within a specified amount of time following the sale.  The defect can be connected with the performance of the product, or a security related issue. This concept can be best understood by taking a brand new car as an example. The dealers are supposed to fix any issue that may affect the performance or security of the car, if this issue is reported at the right time – within a time span of 1 year or before the completion of 12000 miles. The dealer is supposed to replace the vehicle, if the impairment is not fixable after 3 attempts. The dealer should also take into consideration the number of days for which the car was under repair. He can only do the repair work for a maximum of 30 days before having to replace the vehicle. Instead of the replacement scheme, the dealer can also opt to refund the buyer’s money.

What are punitive damages and how do they relate to Lemon Law?

More on punitive damage concepts

Many are not even aware of the concept of punitive damages. What are punitive damages in the first place? Punitive damages are the additional compensation amounts charged from a defendant, for an intentional act that causes distress or financial loss to the victim.  Punitive damages can be charged in the case of auto sales, if the impairment to the vehicle was already known to the dealer. In order to charge the dealer on these same grounds, the plaintiff should prove that fraudulent transaction was quite intentionally carried through by the dealer. Motorcycles and off-road vehicles, however, cannot be availed damages for in this manner.

This is some information on the lemon law in some states, such as Pennsylvania. Further information on the topic can be availed from other legal resource websites.