A Brief History Of Lemon LawsFor anyone who has had experience dealing with a lemon of a car and been grateful for lemon law, you might have wondered when they were enacted or how they developed. Here is where knowing a bit about the history of lemon law might answer your questions. Foundational legislations that were passed led to the eventually to the modern movement for consumer protection that was embodied by the term lemon law and though the laws were slow to be introduced in the United States, today they are very common. At this time, you will be given a short review of key points of development in the history of lemon law. In the history of lemon laws, the groundwork for the modern movement in the United States can be traced back to a number of key commerce and trade legislation, including the two following: The first was the Uniform Sales Act of 1906, which sought to remove some of the differences between individual state commerce laws. This was later followed by the Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C) in 1952, which was meant to update various pieces of commerce legislation including the Uniform Sales Act. Both were meant to regulate, organize, and modernize commerce and trade law across the United States. However, it was not until a few decades after the U.C.C. that the efforts of one Californian woman spurred the on the modern lemon law movement. It started with what Lemon Grove, California resident Rosemary Shahan, poetry teacher, thought would be a routine and fast repair job. Shahan had damage from a car accident and had it sent to a dealership to be fixed. Despite the promises of the shop, she ended up waiting for several months. This prompted Shahan to protest the unfair treatment. Despite the fact that she was verbally abused by the business, she continued. Other aggravated consumers joined in and Shahan eventually founded the citizen consumer fairness movement known as C.A.R.S. Such movements prompted further examination by authorities into the problems associated consumer protection rights and eventual legislation. A few years after Rosemary Shahan's protests in California that same state became one of the first states in the Union to establish permanent lemon laws. In fact, the year 1982 goes down in the history of lemon laws as the time when both California and Connecticut enacted lemon laws to provide added protection for consumers who were dealing with defective automobiles and other products. This was just the starting point for lemon law legislation. Inevitably, other states followed suit, and in one form or another, established lemon laws of their own. By 1993, every state in the United States had passed lemon laws that outline the procedures for manufacturers and salesmen to provide restitution or replacement of defective goods based upon set parameters. As you can see, the history of lemon laws is filled with very crucial periods that led strength to those that came afterwards to create the consumer protection that is available today. Certainly, there are other events that could be mentioned that shed more light on the rich history of lemon laws. |