The following video is from you tube about a customer who bought a used car from a Mossy dealership in San Diego. When he had a problem with the vehicle, he was forced into arbitration and not allowed to bring his claim in court and tell his story to a jury.  After three years, he still waiting for his arbitration hearing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sCUmXfy03c

Many car dealers, like Mossy, use forced arbitration in their contracts with customers, preventing them from bringing any problems or disputes that they have to a court and/or jury.  In arbitration, the deck is stacked against consumers.

If you think that business should not be able to force consumers into arbtiration, you should contact your U.S. Senator and House of Representative and ask them to support the Arbitration Fairness Act, which will ban forced arbitration in consumer contracts.

The irony in this is that car dealers, like Mossy, got Congress to prohibit car manufacturers from using forced arbitration in its agreements with its franchise car dealers.  Yet, car dealers feel that it’s fair to force their customers into arbitration.  This doesn’t make sense.

Rosner, Barry & Babbitt, LLP’s Auto Fraud Legal Center is pleased to announce that the California Court of Appeal ruled that backdating automobile purchase contracts violates multiple California consumer protection laws. In the case of Nelson v. Pearson Ford (2010) 2010 Cal. App. LEXIS 1163, the Court of Appeal ruled that Pearson Ford, a San Diego dealership, violated the Automobile Sales Finance Act, the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, and the Unfair Competition Law by backdating purchase contracts. The Court of Appeal ordered that the over 1,500 class members could elect to return their vehicles and rescind their contracts. The Court left the issue to the trial court to determine whether the dealership should receive any offset for the class members’ use of their vehicles. The Court also upheld a judgment in favor of a class of consumers whose contracts failed to disclose the cost of insurance they purchased at Pearson Ford.

The case will have a widespread positive impact for consumers throughout California, including in the well-publicized Raceway Ford Cases pending in Riverside County. There, the trial judge held that backdating did not violate California law. Since judgment has not been entered in Raceway Ford’s favor, the trial court will now need to reverse it’s prior statement of decision to follow the Nelson case, which should result in a victory for over 1,100 consumers. Rosner, Barry & Babbitt has multiple other backdating class actions pending throughout California for the benefit of car buyers deceived by this illegal practice. Industry experts estimate that as many as 40% of California dealerships have backdated contracts this decade.

To review an article on this decision from the Los Angeles Daily Journal, click here.