California amended its Lemon Law last year. Not everybody is happy with the proposed fix
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
WAS THIS CHANGE TO CALIFORNIA’S LEMON LAW ITSELF A LEMON?
It’s not uncommon for California lawmakers (or lawmakers in general) to submit, shall we say, less-than-perfect legislation. And from time to time, it’s up to those lawmakers to make tweaks or fixes.
SB 26 is one such tweak.
Authored by Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, SB 26 is intended to amend last session’s AB 1755, by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, which itself was an amendment to California’s 1970 “Lemon Law.” The law allows consumers to sue auto manufacturers for defective vehicles.
AB 1755 was intended to speed up resolution of Lemon Law claims and cut down on the amount of litigation, but a number of automakers protested the bill and Gov. Gavin Newsom himself, in signing AB 1755 into law, echoed those concerns.
“In light of those concerns, the authors have agreed to introduce a bill early in the 2025-2026 legislative session that would amend the law enacted by this bill to make its new procedures subject to election by a given automaker,” Newsom wrote in his signing statement.
In other words, SB 26 lets automakers decide whether to opt in, or out, of AB 1755’s changes.
So what’s the problem?
Consumer advocates and Lemon Law attorneys have voiced concern that the law will create confusion for vehicle buyers as to whether the maker of their particular vehicle has opted in, or out, of the law.
If they opted in, there would be a substantially shorter statute of limitations for Lemon Law claims — within one year after the expiration of the warranty, down from four years. If they opt out, they are subject to the previous Lemon Law.
“It’s essentially being presented as a cleanup bill, but it’s just confusing things more and more,” said Lemon Law attorney Armig Khodanian of Prestige Legal Solutions in an interview with The Bee.
Attorney Michelle Yang, also of Prestige Legal Solutions, told The Bee that AB 1755 — a gut-and-amend bill — was “improperly introduced,” and that SB 26 is essentially “allowing people to basically say I either want to comply under the law or I don’t.”
Umberg, in an interview with The Bee, said that bill-making is “a dynamic process” and ultimately an imperfect one.
“In terms of creating laws that reflect public policy, it is true that we sometimes make a law ... that requires some adjustment, and that’s the process,” he said.
That process will play out Tuesday, when the Senate Judiciary Committee (chaired by Umberg) hears the bill.
SB 26 is an urgency statute bill, meaning it requires a two-thirds vote from both houses of the Legislature in order to become law.
GLAZER, PEARCE TAKE THEIR FIGHT TO SAVE JOURNALISM NATIONAL
Last year, then-State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Contra Costa, and then-Media Guild of the West President Matt Pearce (a former Los Angeles Times reporter) worked together to try and pass SB 1327, a bill to tax Big Tech in order to fund a tax credit for California media outlets.
That effort was snuffed out after Google — which lobbied heavily against the bill — struck a deal with Newsom and Democratic lawmakers to pay a substantially smaller sum into a journalism fund, as long as the state paid into it as well. Newsom has signaled he will add the state’s portion to this year’s budget. As for Google’s share? Well, that’s TBD.
As for Glazer and Pearce, they’ll be working together again, and taking their fight to save struggling news outlets onto the national stage by advising the nonpartisan nonprofit Rebuild Local News, which as the name implies was founded to counter the collapse of local journalism in America.
According to a press release from the nonprofit, Glazer will serve as a senior advisor to the group,. In addition to California, he will “assist other states in advancing initiatives to bolster local news, ensuring that the movement for reform extends across the country.”
As for Pearce, he will serve as senior policy advisor. As president of the Media Guild of the West, Pearce worked with Rebuild Local News to advocate for both SB 1327 and AB 886 — which would have required major tech companies to pay for news links that are shared on their platforms.
“The guild in general has been an important champion for local news policy — and we wholeheartedly agree that the focus should be on hiring journalists. Pearce’s leadership has been central to creating a future for local journalism that is not only more vibrant but also more resilient and robust,” the statement from Rebuild Local News read.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Californians deserve truth, honesty, and transparency in their health care. Generative AI systems are not licensed health professionals, and they shouldn’t be allowed to present themselves as such. It’s a no-brainer to me.”
- Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, in a statement introducing her bill, AB 489, to prohibit AI from misrepresenting itself as a health professional.
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