San Diego attorney Ellen Turnage represents a client who reached a settlement with Chrysler over a 2006 Dodge Magnum with a bad suspension. The car has been returned to Chrysler, but the automaker's check bounced.
"Now he's got no car and no money, so he can't go buy a new one," Turnage said of her client. "He's stuck. We're hanging on to a glimmer of hope that at some point this will all be resolved."
Attorneys who handle lemon law cases typically work on a contingency fee basis, so they aren't getting paid either.
Chrysler said it was aware of the lemon law logjam but wouldn't say how many of its customers were affected.
The company said it had no plans at this point to ask the bankruptcy judge to approve payments to settle lemon law complaints.
"This is a complex process and there are a lot of issues being discussed," said Chrysler spokesman Mike Palese. "This could be one of those issues that comes up in the course of the bankruptcy, but I can't say that we have any plans to present it at this time."
Chrysler advises customers with pending lemon law complaints to file a proof of claim form with the Bankruptcy Court and join the ranks of the automaker's unsecured creditors.
"In that case, you'll be lucky to get pennies on the dollar," Simanovsky said.
Representatives of consumer groups met with the Obama administration's auto task force this week to discuss lemon law problems and other issues stemming from the Chrysler bankruptcy and the restructuring of General Motors Corp., which also could wind up in Bankruptcy Court.
"They were open to listening to us, but I do think that the consumer is not a focus of the auto task force at this point," said Linda Sherry of Consumer Action, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group. "The task force was put in place to do other things."
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martin.zimmerman@latimes.com
