California Lemon Law Lawyer Blog

Consumers whose cars are repossessed usually want to get them back. California law has long required the repossessing finance company to give particular disclosures about how to do that in post-repossession notice of intent to dispose (NOIs). In June, the Court of Appeal clarified California law in one of our cases by ruling that the repossessing finance company has to tell consumers exactly how much they have to pay and what else they have to do.

Yesterday the California Supreme Court rejected the petition of Arcadia Financial Ltd. to review the Court of Appeal's decision or to depublish it. This is great news for California consumers!

Several other California auto finance companies had also asked the Supreme Court to depublish the decision. They claimed that it was too difficult for them to comply with the Court of Appeal's interpretation of California law. The Court's interpretation requires these companies to tell consumers exactly what they need to do to reinstate, including how much they have to pay and to whom, including names and addresses.

The Supreme Court's decision to reject review and to refuse to depublish means the Court of Appeal's decision is binding, not only on Arcadia but on other California auto finance companies as well. If the Supreme Court had depublished, the opinion would not have been binding on other auto finance companies, only on Arcadia. If the Supreme Court had accepted review, it could have adopted the Court of Appel's conclusions or formed its own independent opinion. As the Court of Appeal said:

"Creditors must provide consumers with sufficient information to allow consumers to fulfill all of the conditions the consumer must meet before a creditor will reinstate the contract. Arcadia's NOI does not satisfy these requirements."

This means that if consumers receive NOIs that do not tell them everything they need to do to reinstate, they are not liable for any deficiency following the sale of their repossessed vehicle. We think this is a huge victory for California consumers.

In good news for consumers, the California DMV announced that it would join the National Motor Vehicle Titling Information System (NMVTIS) in 2008. Being part of the system allows the state to instantly verify the validity of out-of-state ownership documents, including the VIN, odometer, and any damage history before issuing a California title. Participation will be an enormous help to law enforcement going after vehicle theft and fraud and it will allow consumers to check a current title and odometer readings.

California had foolishly refused to join NMVTIS saying is own computer system had to be updated first. Now, thanks to excellent lobbying by consumer advocate Rosemary Shahan of the non-profit group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, DMV has finally done the right thing. Rosemary reports that DMV will let a contract to Carfax.com or AutoCheck.com (an Experian company) to make the data accessible to consumers over the Internet. This development is truly a great advance in providing vital data to consumers shopping for used cars and trucks.