Lemon Aid

Cars are practically in Jordan Reich’s blood.

“My dad loved new cars; my brother loved old cars and had a repair shop in Riverside, California. I grew up working on them,” Reich says. He doesn’t get his hands dirty anymore, but Reich is still elbow-deep in auto issues. His solo firm, Seattle Lemon Law, is one of the rare ones dedicated to lemon law.

That’s not to say it was a straight path for his career. Reich says it’s been more like the Formula One track in Nürburgring, Germany: “extremely long and tedious, and after a very long time of white-knuckle driving, there’s a straightaway which comes and goes way too fast. That’s the only time you get to relax.”

Reich started out in biotechnology—“because that’s what my father did”—after landing a business degree at Washington State and master’s in business administration at Indiana University. Then he swerved to a law degree at University of San Diego, while taking biology courses at junior college to prepare for patent law. He even wrote a patent while doing a first-year internship. But “it wasn’t for me,” he says. “It was unbelievably detailed. I decided to switch my classes to tax law.”

“We have seen it all—people buy a vehicle and within a week it’s in the shop for major engine repair, and it’s just gone for six months to a year.”

A Seattle-area family member with a health issue prompted Reich and his wife, Aubrey, to move to the area in 2017. Reich had dropped his tax law practice and was looking around for something he could do. “I knew about the lemon law,” he says. “I’d dealt with car manufacturers and dealers and nobody enjoys that whole process, and I thought I’d try that.”

Reich put up a simple website to find business. “The very next day, I get a call. I remember the client and the vehicle—2016 Chevy Cruze. She called me up and told me all these problems, and I said, ‘Let me see what I can do.’” Reich strapped himself in and earned a settlement for her.

A lot of Reich’s clients actually come from dealership referrals. “Dealers who haven’t been able to fix a problem don’t want to continue to deal with an unsatisfied customer, so they’ll say, ‘Go find a lemon
law attorney.’”

The first question clients ask is whether their situation is covered under the law. “That’s pretty much a no-brainer,” Reich says. “There are two main ways to be qualified: if your new vehicle is out of use for 30 or more days, or if you’ve made four or more attempts to fix the same issue. Then it’s generally qualified.” In Washington, a car also must be less than 2 years old and have fewer than 24,000 miles on it.

Another common question is how long it will take to remedy the situation. Reich says that, because of statutory waiting periods, the average settlement takes three to six months. And though dealers will often supply a substitute vehicle, that can create an inconvenience. “We have seen it all—people buy a vehicle and within a week it’s in the shop for major engine repair, and it’s just gone for six months to a year. You buy a new car you need, and you don’t get it … like they buy a minivan and they are stuck in a Corolla for a year.”

Reich says many of the issues he deals with are fairly rare. “But on certain models you’ll notice the same issue reoccurring,” he says. “Chrysler Pacifica has had problems with their hybrid version batteries and motors, and the Ford F series chassis has had transmission issues.” In fact, Reich says, “a former attorney for BMW called me because he had that problem with a Ford F-150 and wanted me to work his case for him.” It ended up successfully for his client.

Lemon law practice, Reich explains, is a bit different from most legal work. “We have mandatory arbitration through the attorney general,” he says. “You have your claim. You file a request for arbitration. You fill out the forms and attach all your documents, and then they supply it to the arbitration board, and they conduct a hearing. There’s only a handful of people that do the arbitration, so they know what they are doing. It’s very efficient.”

That doesn’t mean it’s always a leisurely drive to a settlement. “Typically, what will happen with these cases is that you send a demand letter and those go unresponded to, or inadequately responded to,” Reich says. “Once we file for arbitration, the manufacturer has a little freak-out and immediately tries to settle.”

If they end up in a hearing, Reich says he often sees the manufacturer playing the good guy. “‘Oh, we tried to take care of the customer, but your attorney—he’s a bad guy, he’s the one that screwed all this up.’” Reich laughs. “So if you have thick enough skin to deal with that and everyone telling you that you’re horrible and you’re always wrong, then you’re fine.”

Firsthand Experience

Reich knows what it’s like to buy a lemon. “The first one I had was a VW Beetle, a 2003. The sunroof wouldn’t open or close—they were replacing some part, and the dealer made four attempts.”  Reich, who was still in California, contacted an attorney: “He got them to buy it back and we were happy.” 

 The second lemon was particularly sour. “My wife had a Land Rover; the electronics started going crazy and the airbag went out, and they had to replace the wiring harness twice.” The dealer had the car for four months. “We ended up lemoning that car, because I’m not taking a chance with the airbag—that’s for sure.”