PA Lemon Law - Is it really free?

I practice law in Pennsylvania with a concentration on Lemon Law and Breach of Warranty issues for vehicles. Our state Lemon Law protects consumers who have purchased defective vehicles, and it’s a pretty powerful statute. The best provision in the law, in my opinion, is that it allows for recovery of your reasonable attorney fees.

In Pennsylvania, under a typical lawsuit, there is no recovery of attorney fees. For instance, if you wanted to sue someone who owes you money, you would likely have to hire an attorney and pay him/her a retainer out of your pocket. Then, whether you win or lose the lawsuit, you must realize that you will not get your attorney fees back. Its considered a cost of filing a lawsuit here in PA.

On the other hand, as mentioned previously, the Lemon Law has a provision that allows for recovery of attorney fees. Because the law is so generous and consumer oriented in regard to attorney fees, you will not ever have to pay a retainer to an attorney who handles these types of matters, at least not if he/she is versed in the law. (You should really not consider hiring an attorney who asks for a retainer on an actual lemon law case). At the time of the writing of this article, I can say that there are only about 5-6 law firms based in Pennsylvania who specialize in Lemon Law cases, and I can say with certainty that none of them would ask for a retainer on a Lemon Law case. In addition, I believe that all of these firms actually pay for the costs of the lawsuit (filing fees, expert witness fees, etc...) so that you do not have to spend anything out of pocket to pursue a claim.

As there is no attorney fee out of pocket, its pretty much a no-brainer when deciding whether to hire an attorney and present a lemon law claim. The only issue, as mentioned previously, is to make sure that you hire an experienced lemon law attorney who is versed in the attorney fee provision.