Santa Clara Lemon Law Attorneys

Most Santa Clara County Song-Beverly cases are filed at the Downtown Superior Court on North First Street in San Jose, the civil hub for the county. Manufacturers are served through their California agent for service of process. Many cases settle before any courtroom appearance, and we handle filings, motions, and depositions on your behalf. You generally only need to appear if the case proceeds to deposition or trial. Trials are uncommon in Song-Beverly cases with well-documented repair histories.

It can be. "Within spec" is the manufacturer's position, not a legal conclusion. What matters is whether the documented range loss substantially impairs the use, value, or safety of the vehicle and whether the manufacturer's authorized service has been given a reasonable number of opportunities to fix the issue. Service tickets, battery diagnostic results, replaced modules, and OTA update history are all part of the record. Bring us your service-app screenshots, repair orders, and charging data, and we will evaluate whether the pattern supports a Song-Beverly claim.

Generally yes when documented as a repair under warranty. California courts have increasingly recognized that software is part of the vehicle's warranty obligations. If your Service Center opened a repair order to push a firmware update intended to fix a specific defect, that update is a repair attempt for purposes of Song-Beverly's reasonable-number-of-attempts analysis. Background OTA updates not tied to a service request are a closer question. We use the in-vehicle service history and the Service Center's written records to draw the line.

Yes. Song-Beverly applies to any new motor vehicle sold with a manufacturer's express written warranty. Rivian, Lucid, Polestar, Fisker, and other newer EV makers are subject to the same lemon law framework as Tesla, Ford, and Toyota. The practical difference is the smaller service network, which sometimes makes the repair-attempt analysis easier because there are fewer authorized service options. We have handled newer-EV cases and know what records to request.

Under Civil Code 1793.2(d), a manufacturer repurchase generally refunds the actual price paid (including sales tax, license, registration, finance charges, and incidental costs), minus a statutory mileage offset. The offset is (miles at first repair / 120,000) x actual price paid. So a $70,000 EV first repaired at 6,000 miles would have a mileage offset of $3,500. Aftermarket add-ons that are not refundable through the manufacturer are sometimes handled separately. Negative-equity rollovers from trade-ins are typically included in the refund.

Sometimes. The Song-Beverly Act covers vehicles purchased or leased "for use, primarily for personal, family, or household purposes," and also extends to certain vehicles used in business if the gross vehicle weight rating is under 10,000 pounds and the business owns five or fewer vehicles registered in California. Sole proprietors and small businesses often qualify; corporate fleets and heavy commercial vehicles often do not. We screen for this at intake.

Most resolve in 3 to 9 months. Several manufacturers, including Tesla and many luxury European OEMs, run established prelitigation buyback programs that can resolve a properly documented demand within 60 to 90 days. Cases involving disputed software histories, range diagnostics, or willful-conduct civil-penalty claims tend to run longer because they require expert evaluation and sometimes depositions. We give you a realistic timeline at the case-review stage.