FAQ: DOES LOUISIANA HAVE A LEMON LAW?

Hampton Law Firm ⚖️
3 days ago
5 min read

Earlier today, Tammy, my legal assistant, asked me a question I honestly could not answer off the top of my head: Does Louisiana have a Lemon Law?

The answer was not immediately sitting in my brain because this is not the type of law we ordinarily practice at Hampton Law Firm. A perfectly reasonable person might hear that and say, “Okay, Judith. Then just say you don’t know and move on with your life.”

That is apparently not how I operate.

I had spent most of the afternoon at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center, got back to my office around 6:00 that evening, still had six files sitting there waiting for me to review, and had already promised myself that I was absolutely leaving the office before 8:00.

So naturally, I stopped what I was doing and started researching Louisiana Lemon Law.

I did not make it out of the office before 8:00.

But I did find the answer.

Yes. Louisiana has a Lemon Law.

And since Tammy asked the question, I figured there is a pretty good chance somebody else has wondered the same thing.

WHAT DOES THAT ACTUALLY MEAN?

You buy a new vehicle, and it keeps breaking. You take it back to the dealership, they tell you it is fixed, you drive away, and then the same problem comes right back.

At some point, the question stops being whether the situation is aggravating and becomes: How many chances do they get before Louisiana law says enough is enough?

That is basically what Louisiana’s Lemon Law is there to address.

Not every new vehicle with a problem is legally a lemon. Cars break. Computers glitch. Sensors act stupid. One repair does not automatically mean somebody owes you another vehicle.

The law is concerned with a defect or problem that substantially affects the vehicle’s use or market value and that the manufacturer has been given a reasonable opportunity to repair.

THE NUMBERS YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO KNOW

Say you buy a new SUV and it develops a serious electrical problem. Maybe the dashboard keeps going crazy, the vehicle repeatedly refuses to start, it loses power, or something else important keeps failing.

You take it to the dealership. They repair it and send you home.

Then it happens again.

You take it back. They repair it again.

Then it happens again.

Louisiana law gives us two particularly important numbers to look at: four and 45.

If the same problem has been subject to repair four or more times during the applicable period and the problem still exists, Louisiana law can presume that the manufacturer has been given a reasonable opportunity to repair it.

The other important number is 45. If the vehicle has been out of service because of repairs for a cumulative total of 45 or more calendar days during the applicable period, that can also create a presumption that a reasonable number of repair attempts have occurred.

And “cumulative” matters. Your vehicle does not necessarily have to sit at the dealership for 45 straight days. Ten days here, another twelve there, another week later — those days can add up.

That does not mean Lemon Law is simply a counting exercise where repair attempt number four automatically gets you a new car. The problem matters. The timing matters. The repair history matters. Why the vehicle was out of service matters. The manufacturer also has to be given the opportunity required by law to address the problem.

DON’T WAIT FOREVER

Timing matters too.

Louisiana law generally requires that the problem be reported and the vehicle made available for repair before the manufacturer’s warranty expires or within one year after the vehicle was originally delivered to the consumer, whichever occurs first.

That is why repeatedly taking a defective vehicle back to the dealership without keeping track of anything is not a great plan.

If the same problem keeps happening, start keeping records.

Keep every repair order. Keep the dates you dropped the vehicle off and picked it up. Keep what you told the dealership was wrong. Read what the dealership actually wrote down as your complaint. Keep what they say they repaired. Keep relevant emails and texts. Keep track of how many days the vehicle was actually unavailable to you.

There is a huge difference between somebody sitting across from me saying, “I swear I have taken this damn thing back five times,” and somebody putting five repair orders on my desk showing the same problem, the dates of every visit, what was done each time, and how many days the vehicle spent in the shop.

One gives me a story.

The other gives me something I can actually evaluate.

SO WHAT HAPPENS IF IT REALLY IS A LEMON?

If the vehicle qualifies under Louisiana law and the statutory requirements are satisfied, the manufacturer may be required to replace the vehicle with a comparable new vehicle or accept the return of the vehicle and refund certain amounts, subject to the deductions, calculations, costs, procedures, and other requirements provided by law.

There are also separate provisions that can apply to leased vehicles, and some manufacturers may have dispute-resolution procedures that have to be used before certain remedies become available.

So no, Louisiana Lemon Law is not simply, “I hate this car and would now like another one.”

If your Bluetooth disconnected twice and the cupholder rattles, we are probably not there.

But if you bought a new vehicle with a serious recurring problem, the dealership has repeatedly tried and failed to repair it, or the vehicle has spent an extraordinary amount of time sitting in a service department instead of your driveway, that is a very different conversation.

At that point, stop treating every trip to the dealership as a separate inconvenience and start looking at the entire history together.

THE JUDITH HAMPTON PORTION OF TODAY’S LESSON

Keep the damn paperwork.

You can throw away the fast-food receipts rolling around in your console. Keep the repair orders.

Because if you ever need somebody to determine whether Louisiana law considers your vehicle a lemon, a stack of records showing exactly what happened is considerably more useful than sitting across the desk saying, “Judith, I swear to God they have had that car half my life.”

And if they really have had it half your life, bring me the paperwork.

Apparently Tammy and I both know more about Louisiana Lemon Law tonight than we did this morning.

— Judith L. Hampton

Attorney at Law

Hampton Law Firm

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