California’s Bureau of Automotive Repair has warned that delays in obtaining parts for collision repairs can extend repair times by several weeks or even months. Owners of a defective vehicle know that they will have to wait a while. What many don’t expect is that the claim that follows can take longer than the repairs did, and that the second delay is often harder to see because nothing is sitting in a service bay.
George Mkrtchyan, Esq., Managing Attorney of Court House Lawyers in Glendale, California, argues that the pace of a lemon law case is set less by the calendar than by whether someone is actively moving the file, and that a claim does not generally gain value by waiting.
One Land Rover claim illustrates the point. The owner had been with another attorney for about 18 months. After the case came to Court House Lawyers, it was resolved within 3 months.
What the Land Rover Lemon Law Case Shows
The case is not a template. Lemon law claims rarely move at the same speed, and a 3-month resolution is not a timeline any owner should expect for their own claim. The defect, the manufacturer, the repair record and whether a lawsuit is needed can all change the schedule.
What the case does show is narrower. The same claim was resolved on a very different schedule after it changed hands. That suggests elapsed time, by itself, is a poor measure of how close a claim is to an end. A calendar can show 18 months while the file itself has not advanced in a while.
“When we take over a stalled case, we review the file, then start from where the case stands and move it forward,” says Mkrtchyan. “A lemon law claim can lose months just waiting for the next response. The first job is finding out what the file still needs, and asking for it.”
What Tends to Speed Up a Lemon Law Buyback
Documentation is the most within-reach factor. Clear records of each repair visit generally speed up negotiations because the manufacturer has less to dispute about what happened and when. Owners can help by reporting the specific symptom at each visit, keeping every repair order and getting the defect documented early rather than living with it.
How a demand is built also matters. Mkrtchyan structures buyback demands around repair attempts grouped by concern, along with the total days the vehicle spent out of service. Organizing a demand this way presents the repair history as a pattern rather than a pile of invoices.
The type of defect can affect speed as well. Safety-related problems tend to move faster, since manufacturers often treat them with more urgency.
The route also shapes the schedule. Many claims never need a lawsuit and can resolve through negotiation once the manufacturer has the documented history in front of it. Others move into arbitration or litigation, and each of those paths adds its own steps before a buyback is complete.
What Tends to Slow a Lemon Law Case Down
Some delays come from the defect itself. Rare or intermittent problems that a technician can’t reproduce on demand may require more investigation before a manufacturer engages. Others come from the process. Once a claim moves into litigation, court backlogs, discovery and expert evaluations can all add time, and manufacturers can take time to respond at nearly every stage.
A stage-by-stage breakdown on courthouselawyers.com walks through each phase, from identifying the defect and notifying the manufacturer to negotiation, arbitration or a lawsuit, and the factors that can stretch or shorten each one.
Mkrtchyan is direct about the limits of what a lawyer controls. Parts, court calendars and a manufacturer’s response time are often outside anyone’s hands. What a firm can control is whether the file is ready and moving when the other side is. “Some delays I can’t do anything about,” he says. “The ones that come from a file sitting on someone’s desk, I can.”
The Lemon Law Clock Owners Can Control
For owners, the practical lesson sits at both ends of a claim. At the start, a well-documented repair history gives whoever handles the claim something to act on immediately. Early documentation can also affect the numbers. The mileage offset that reduces a buyback is calculated from the miles at the first documented repair visit for the defect, so a problem reported promptly can carry a smaller deduction than one tolerated for thousands of miles.
Later, if a claim seems to have stalled, owners can reasonably ask what the next step is and when it is expected.
Mkrtchyan, who founded the Delta Theta Phi chapter at his law school, started the firm in August 2022. His approach rests on the same premise as the Land Rover case: a file moves when someone is responsible for moving it.
A defective car announces itself every time it goes back to the shop. A stalled claim makes no noise at all, which is why, in Mkrtchyan’s view, the most useful question an owner can ask is not how long a case should take, but who is moving it this week.
Disclaimer: The content in this article is provided for general knowledge. It does not constitute legal advice, and readers should seek advice from qualified legal professionals regarding particular cases or situations.
