Recent Case

Pennings, Michelle v. Volkswagen Group of America

In September 2015, Volkswagen got caught with its pants down when it was forced to admit 500,000+ vehicles marketed as “clean diesels” were equipped with an emissions defeat device. Volkswagen’s fraud resulted in a national class action lawsuit settlement that undercompensated consumers by allowing Volkswagen, and its authorized-dealerships, to escape full liability under California’s lemon law.

Michelle Pennings, the owner of a 2009 Jetta TDI which she had driven 150,000+ miles, turned to the Auto Fraud Legal Center. The Auto Fraud Legal Center rejected the unfair class action settlement, and filed an arbitration case against the selling dealership, Drew Volkswagen in La Mesa, California. Ms. Pennings won her arbitration, and the vehicle was repurchased for the full sale price, plus interest on the loan — more than $37,000! Ms. Pennings was also awarded prejudgment interest, and recovered all of her legal fees and expenses. Instead of being out of pocket tens of thousands of dollars for a vehicle our client never would have purchased if she had known the truth, the Auto Fraud Legal Center made sure Ms. Pennings was made whole and received the full remedy to which she was entitled under California’s lemon law