DEALER DEFENSE STRATEGY
HATED BY DEALERS. HIRED BY DEALERS.™
- Take Car Law Firm off the other side of the table. Secure our professional loyalty as your counsel before the next eligible claim arises.
- Build legal protection into every qualifying vehicle sold: $50 per qualifying California consumer-retail sale, subject to a $1,500 monthly minimum.
- Make yearly legal costs more predictable by converting legal protection into a budgetable operating expense.
- Cap Car Law Firm’s legal fees at $3,000 per accepted eligible case by having a known rate structure and a defined ceiling on defense legal fees.
- Receive legal rates discounted by 80%, with attorney rates capped at $75 per hour.
- Put the plaintiff’s playbook on your side of the table.
- Get ahead of claims with lawyers who know how dealer cases are found, built, valued, and prosecuted.
- Manage enrolled VINs, claims, documents, and payments through one Dealer Defense portal.
- With a qualifying three-year commitment, potentially extend VIN eligibility to qualifying sales from the preceding three years without any additional fees.
619-233-8460
DealerDefense@carlawfirm.com
THE FIRM DEALERS LOVE TO HATE
We changed the industry. Now dealers can put that experience to work for them.
- Put our plaintiff-side dealer litigation experience to work for your dealership.
- Know what consumer attorneys look for before they find it.
- Identify the documents, disclosures, communications, and practices that create exposure.
- Evaluate claims through the eyes of lawyers who know how to build them.
- Turn one of the industry’s most experienced opponents into experienced defense counsel.
Car Law Firm did not merely file lawsuits against automobile dealers. We changed the environment in which California dealers operate. We identified claims that had previously gone unnoticed, showed consumers how to recognize problems they did not know existed, and developed effective methods for pursuing those claims. Our work disrupted the industry, increased compliance, and forced dealerships to pay closer attention to disclosures, documentation, vehicle histories, advertising, financing, and consumer complaints.
Dealers have tried almost everything to stop us. They have fought us in state court, federal court, arbitration, regulatory complaints, and disciplinary proceedings. Some have spent extraordinary amounts trying to defeat us. Others have pursued litigation designed to put us out of business. None of it worked. We are still here, still finding cases, and still changing the way consumer claims against dealers are handled.
We understand why dealers have not welcomed our work. From the dealer’s perspective, we created a new category of uncertainty. A transaction that appeared closed and profitable could become an expensive claim months or years later. Dealers often did not understand how the claim was discovered, how serious it was, or what the defense would cost until the lawsuit or arbitration had already begun.
THE TURN
The same experience that made Car Law Firm a dangerous opponent can make us an unusually valuable defense firm. We know the attacks because we have made them.
We know how these cases are found, which documents are examined, which disclosures are challenged, which mistakes attract attorneys, and which facts increase the value of a consumer claim. The Dealer Defense Program gives dealerships the opportunity to stop spending money trying to eliminate Car Law Firm and start using our knowledge to protect their own businesses.
MAKE LEGAL COSTS PREDICTABLE
Treat legal protection like reconditioning: a known operating expense attached to each qualifying sale.
- Build legal protection into each qualifying retail sale.
- Convert an unpredictable litigation expense into a budgetable operating cost.
- Know your program expense based on qualifying sales volume.
- Reduce dependence on unexpected retainers and open-ended defense bills.
- Budget for legal risk alongside insurance, reconditioning, and other operating costs.
Dealerships know how to calculate the ordinary costs associated with selling a vehicle. Acquisition, transportation, detailing, tires, mechanical repairs, advertising, commissions, flooring, insurance, and reconditioning are all incorporated into the dealer’s financial model. Management understands that these expenses are part of the cost of doing business.
Consumer litigation is different. A dealership rarely knows how many claims it will receive during a year, how aggressively those claims will be pursued, or what the defense will ultimately cost. One year may be quiet, while the next may bring several demands, lawsuits, and arbitrations. Each new case may require another retainer, another firm, and another unpredictable series of bills.
$50 PER QUALIFYING RETAIL SALE
For $50 per qualifying California consumer-retail sale, subject to a $1,500 monthly minimum, the dealership establishes an ongoing relationship with Car Law Firm and gains access to heavily discounted representation for accepted eligible cases.
Internally, the dealership can allocate the $50 program charge across its qualifying retail sales just as it allocates insurance or reconditioning. The $50 is not presented as a separate charge to the consumer. It becomes part of the dealership’s own expense and risk-management model.
Instead of wondering whether the next year of consumer litigation will cost $25,000, $100,000, or considerably more, management can calculate its annual program expense based on sales volume and estimate the maximum legal fees associated with each accepted eligible case. Litigation may never become completely predictable. The cost of securing experienced legal defense can become far more predictable.
80% DISCOUNTED. $3,000 PER CASE.
A known rate structure and a defined ceiling on Car Law Firm’s legal fees for every accepted eligible case.
- 80% discounted legal rates. Attorney rates capped at $75/hour; paralegal rates at $30/hour; law-clerk and legal-assistant rates at $20/hour.
- Car Law Firm legal fees capped at $3,000 per accepted eligible case.
- Know the ceiling before the defense begins.
- Replace the traditional defense-firm blank check with a defined cost structure.
THE RATE CARD
Attorney rates are discounted by 80% and capped at $75 per hour. Paralegal rates are discounted by 80% and capped at $30 per hour. Law-clerk and legal-assistant rates are discounted by 80% and capped at $20 per hour.
The discounted rates are only the beginning. Car Law Firm’s total legal fees—including attorney, paralegal, law-clerk, and legal-assistant time—are capped at $3,000 per accepted eligible case. The dealer does not merely receive a lower hourly rate and hope the hours remain under control. It receives deeply discounted rates together with a defined maximum amount that Car Law Firm will charge in legal fees per accepted eligible case.
Consider a dealership averaging 50 qualifying consumer-retail sales per month. At $50 per vehicle, its annual program expense would be approximately $30,000. If the dealership received five accepted eligible cases during the year and every case reached the full $3,000 per-case cap, Car Law Firm’s total legal fees for those five cases would be capped at $15,000.
THE COST MODEL
In this example, the combined annual program expense and maximum firm fees would be approximately $45,000. Spread across roughly 600 qualifying sales, that is approximately $75 per vehicle—before third-party expenses.
* Outside expenses are not included in the $3,000 per-case legal-fee cap. Filing fees, arbitration fees, deposition costs, transcripts, expert-witness fees, investigators, travel, service of process, and similar third-party expenses remain the dealership’s responsibility. Appeals, post-verdict proceedings, known claims, existing threats, and other excluded matters are not automatically covered.
Subject to those limitations, this program replaces the traditional defense-firm blank check with something a dealership can actually measure: a known program expense, rates discounted by 80%, and Car Law Firm’s total legal fees capped at $3,000 per accepted eligible case.
HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS
One relationship, one portal, one defined system for enrolling vehicles and submitting new matters.
- One relationship. One Dealer Defense number. One portal.
- Enroll qualifying VINs through a quarterly reporting process.
- Submit new claims and deal documents through one organized system.
- Manage program payments and recurring payments in the same portal.
- Secure program treatment for timely reported and paid qualifying VINs, subject to eligibility and conflict review.
The Dealer Defense Program is an ongoing attorney-client relationship for eligible California automobile dealers. The dealer commits for at least one year and pays $50 for each qualifying California consumer-retail sale, subject to a $1,500 monthly minimum. Only retail sales to consumers count. Wholesale transactions and other nonconsumer dispositions are not included. The dealership’s monthly price is established from its verified average qualifying sales during the prior year and is reviewed as provided in the engagement agreement.
ENROLL THE DEALERSHIP
After the dealership clears a conflict and eligibility review, it signs the engagement agreement, establishes payment, receives its Dealer Defense number, and activates its secure portal. Enrollment is not effective until Car Law Firm provides written acceptance.
The dealership reports its qualifying VINs through the portal every quarter. A VIN must be timely reported and paid for to be enrolled. If a vehicle is not reported and paid for, a later claim involving that vehicle does not receive automatic program treatment. This reporting requirement keeps the program tied to the retail transactions the dealer has actually chosen to protect.
ONE DEALER PORTAL
Using its Dealer Defense number, the dealership can upload qualifying VINs, make payments or establish recurring credit-card payments, open a new claim, and submit the relevant deal documents in one organized system.
WHEN A CLAIM ARRIVES
- Submit a new consumer claim involving an enrolled VIN through the portal.
- Receive 80% discounted rates and the $3,000 firm-fee cap on accepted eligible matters.
- Keep third-party expenses separate and transparent.
- With a qualifying three-year commitment, potentially extend VIN eligibility to qualifying sales from the preceding three years.
- Known claims, existing threats, and excluded matters remain subject to the engagement agreement.
When a new consumer claim involving an enrolled VIN arises, the dealership submits the matter through the portal. Car Law Firm then completes a matter-specific conflict review, confirms VIN and program eligibility, and decides whether the matter can be accepted. If the case is accepted as an eligible program matter, the dealer receives rates discounted by 80% and Car Law Firm’s total legal fees are capped at $3,000 per accepted eligible case. Filing fees, arbitration fees, experts, depositions, transcripts, investigators, travel, and other third-party expenses remain separate.
Known claims, existing threats, pending disputes, appeals, post-verdict proceedings, and other matters excluded by the engagement agreement are not automatically covered. When ethically permissible, Car Law Firm may offer a subscriber separate representation for an excluded or previously known matter at a substantially reduced negotiated price.
A dealer choosing a three-year commitment may also qualify to submit eligible California consumer-retail VINs from the preceding three years without paying an additional $50 program charge for each historical VIN. The retrospective benefit does not convert a known claim or existing threat into an automatically covered matter. It extends VIN eligibility only as provided in the written engagement agreement.
THE MISTRESS LAW FIRM
The firm dealers criticize in public and quietly retain in private.
- You know what it is like to have us against you. Now put us on your side.
- Secure our expertise before the next eligible claim arrives.
- Put our knowledge to work protecting your dealership instead of being used against it.
- Secure our professional loyalty while a valid attorney-client relationship exists, subject to ethical obligations and conflicts.
- You do not have to publicize the relationship. It simply needs to work.
Let us be honest about the relationship. We may not be the law firm every dealer wants to take home to meet the family. We may be the firm dealers complain about at association meetings and call afterward from the parking lot. We are the firm they denounce in public and consult in private.
WE ARE THE DEALERSHIP’S MISTRESS LAW FIRM
Dealers do not retain us because we tell them everything they want to hear. They retain us because we know where the danger is. We have seen the documents that destroy defenses, the explanations that make matters worse, the practices that attract lawsuits, and the compliance failures repeated across hundreds of transactions.
When we evaluate a dealership matter, we do not have to guess what the consumer’s attorney may be looking for. We know which documents will be requested, which disclosures will be challenged, which communications may create problems, and which facts are likely to drive settlement value. A conventional defense firm may understand what to do after the complaint is filed. We understand how the case is found and constructed before the consumer even knows a claim exists.
THREE FORMS OF SECURITY
The dealer secures our expertise before an eligible claim arrives. It creates greater predictability over its legal expense. And, while a valid attorney-client relationship exists, it secures our professional loyalty—subject to the Rules of Professional Conduct, the engagement agreement, continuing conflict review, and the facts of each matter.
Enrollment does not purchase permanent immunity, eliminate existing claims, protect unreported VINs, or permit unlawful conduct without consequence. It means that when we accept a dealership as a client, our professional obligations to that client are genuine. We take loyalty, confidentiality, and conflicts seriously.
Many dealers already understand the value of this arrangement. They may not announce the relationship or place our name on the showroom wall. But when the next eligible claim arrives, they would rather have our knowledge protecting them than working against them. The relationship does not need to be publicly celebrated. It simply needs to work.
YOUR NEXT MOVE
Clear the field. Request a fresh review. Secure the relationship before the next claim arrives.
- Clear the field. Request a fresh review. Secure the relationship before the next claim arrives.
- Resolve any existing adverse matter involving Car Law Firm through current counsel.
- Request a fresh conflict and eligibility review after the field is clear.
- Establish the attorney-client relationship before the next eligible claim arises.
- Move Car Law Firm from potential adversary to defense counsel—but never both at the same time.
CURRENTLY ON THE OTHER SIDE?
Some dealerships receiving this booklet may presently be adverse to Car Law Firm or one of our existing clients. We may represent a consumer with a pending claim against the dealership. We may already have sent a demand, filed a lawsuit, commenced arbitration, or begun investigating a transaction. If that is true, our loyalty remains entirely with our existing client.
We cannot advise the dealership about that dispute, disclose confidential information, evaluate our client’s position for the dealer, or permit the dealership to use this program to interfere with an existing representation. We also cannot accept the dealership as a client, enroll its VINs, receive program payments, activate its portal, or create an attorney-client relationship while the conflict remains.
GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY
The dealership may contact us to learn about the program and determine whether a conflict exists. It should not send confidential information, explain its defenses, upload deal documents, or assume that contacting us creates an attorney-client relationship. Existing matters must continue through the dealership’s present counsel.
There is a road forward, but there is no shortcut. Every adverse matter involving Car Law Firm and the dealership must first be fully and finally resolved. Our representation of the affected consumer must conclude, all settlement obligations must be satisfied, and any remaining conflict issues must be reviewed. Only then may the dealership request a new conflict check and be considered for enrollment.
Dealers selecting a three-year commitment may also qualify for the retrospective VIN benefit. Subject to the engagement agreement, eligibility requirements, conflict review, and timely reporting, the dealership may submit qualifying California consumer-retail VINs from the preceding three years without paying an additional $50 program charge for each historical VIN. Known claims, existing threats, pending disputes, and previously asserted matters remain excluded from automatic coverage, although separate discounted representation may be available when ethically permissible.
TODAY, WE MAY BE YOUR ADVERSARY.
TOMORROW, WE MAY BE YOUR SHIELD.
BUT NEVER BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.
THE ROAD FORWARD
- Clear the field.
- Request a fresh conflict and eligibility review.
- Complete enrollment and activate the Dealer Defense portal.
- Establish payment and begin reporting qualifying VINs.
- Secure the relationship before the next claim arrives.
First, clear the field. If Car Law Firm presently represents a consumer against your dealership, or if another known claim or threat already exists, resolve that matter through your current counsel. Do not send us confidential information about an existing dispute. We cannot advise you, accept payment, enroll VINs, or create an attorney-client relationship while an adverse matter involving our firm remains unresolved.
Second, call us for a fresh review. After every matter involving Car Law Firm has been fully and finally resolved, contact the Dealer Defense Program for a new conflict and eligibility review. We will determine whether the dealership can be considered for enrollment, explain the program’s requirements, and verify the prior-year qualifying retail-sales average used to establish pricing.
Third, secure the relationship before the next claim arrives. Once the dealership clears review and Car Law Firm provides written acceptance, complete the engagement agreement, activate the Dealer Defense portal, establish payment, and begin reporting qualifying VINs. That is when the dealership moves from knowing our reputation to putting our experience on its own side of the table.
START WITH A CONFLICT REVIEW
Call Car Law Firm and ask for the Dealer Defense Program. General program inquiries are welcome. Do not submit confidential information about an existing dispute unless and until we confirm in writing that we may receive it.
WHICH SIDE OF THE TABLE?
The invitation is simple. The decision is yours.
- Take Car Law Firm off the other side of the table.
- Build legal protection into each qualifying retail sale.
- Receive 80% discounted rates and a $3,000 firm-fee cap on accepted eligible cases.
- Put the plaintiff’s playbook on your side.
- Secure experienced counsel before the next eligible claim arrives.
For years, dealers have spent substantial amounts fighting Car Law Firm. They have hired lawyers, filed complaints, pursued lawsuits, challenged our methods, and searched for ways to stop us from bringing consumer cases. That strategy has not made us disappear.
The Dealer Defense Program offers a more practical alternative. For $50 per qualifying California consumer-retail sale, subject to a $1,500 monthly minimum, a dealer can secure an ongoing relationship with the firm that understands these cases from the inside.
THE OFFER
Legal rates discounted by 80%. Attorney rates capped at $75 per hour. Paralegal rates capped at $30 per hour. Law-clerk and legal-assistant rates capped at $20 per hour. Car Law Firm’s total legal fees capped at $3,000 per accepted eligible case.
The dealer also gains something that cannot be placed on a rate sheet: security. It secures experienced counsel before the next eligible claim arrives. It secures a cost structure that can be estimated and incorporated into its annual business model. It secures lawyers who understand the plaintiff’s playbook because they helped write it. Subject to the engagement agreement and our ethical obligations, it also secures our loyalty as its counsel.
You do not have to like us. You do not have to tell your competitors that you hired us. You do not even have to stop complaining about us. You simply have to decide where you would rather have us sitting when the next claim arrives.
READY TO CHANGE SIDES?
Request general program information and begin the conflict and eligibility review process. Or call or email us:
DealerDefense@carlawfirm.com
619-200-5203
Terms are governed by the written engagement agreement. No attorney-client relationship exists until written acceptance.
IF YOU CANNOT BEAT US, RETAIN US.
HATED BY DEALERS. HIRED BY DEALERS.™