Safetyforum.com: Two of America's Leading Lawyers File Class Action Suit Against Chrysler for Fraudulently Recycling Lemons

    ARLINGTON, Va., March 22 DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group
and its dealers "have engaged for years in reselling repurchased and
reacquired vehicles without properly disclosing" to subsequent buyers that
they are buying recycled lemons, according to a national class action suit
filed today in North Carolina.  Chrysler and its dealers have "engaged in a
widespread and conscious pattern of misrepresentations and obstruction of
justice," according to the suit, which seeks treble compensatory, as well as
punitive damages.
    "Recycling lemons, at the highest possible price, with the littlest
possible disclosure, is a standard business practice at Chrysler. It
contributes millions every year to the automaker's bottom line.  This class
action suit may not halt the practice, but our intention is to make it a loss
leader for Chrysler," said Doug Abrams, lead attorney in the law suit.
    The seven North Carolina residents who are suing Chrysler after buying
recycled lemons, are represented by law firms that include two recent past
presidents of the American Trial Lawyer's Association, Howard Twiggs of
Raleigh, North Carolina and Richard Middleton of Savanah, Georgia.  They are
working with H.C. Kirkhart, another North Carolina attorney, who specializes
in lemon litigation.
    Doug Abrams, a senior partner in the firm Twiggs, Abrams, Strickland and
Rabineau, is also representing another North Carolina couple suing Chrysler
for failing to disclose that they were buying a recycled lemon.  In that case,
now more than a year old, Chrysler has been accumulating sanctions at the rate
of $5,000 a day since early December 2000.  Sanctions in that case now
approach $300,000.  Recently, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, affirmed a
decision by trial judge Narley Cashwell, that a binder of damaging Chrysler
documents should be made public.
    Reacting favorably to the suit, Rosemary Shahan, founder and executive
director of C.A.R.S. a California consumer group, said "Instead of looking for
loopholes to squeeze lemons through, Chrysler should focus more on improving
its products."  A recognized leader in the national effort to end lemon
laundering, Shahan is Safetyforum.com's "Resource of Record" for Lemon
Laundering.
    Each of the seven plaintiff's in the class action suit bought previously
owned Chrysler vehicles from an authorized Chrysler dealer without being told
that Chrysler had just months earlier bought back the vehicle from a previous
owner because repeated attempts to repair the vehicle had failed.
    The lawsuit claims that Chrysler and its authorized dealers "caused
consumers to overpay for their vehicles" because they failed to disclose the
vehicle's problem-filled history.  In fact, the suit alleges, the plaintiffs
"would have elected not to purchase the vehicles in the first instance if they
had received proper disclosure."
    The suit accuses Chrysler "as part of a nationwide pattern of misconduct,"
of calculating the additional profit and benefits it would receive by failing
to disclose to subsequent buyers that they were buying a recycled lemon.
Whenever Chrysler has been sued by individual consumers, it "has engaged in an
intentional and flagrant pattern of discovery abuse and obstruction of justice
in order to deter consumers from asserting their rights," the suit claims.
    Twiggs, Abrams, Strickland and Rabineau are Safetyforum.com "Attorneys of
Record" for Lemon Laundering.

    Safetyforum.com Lemon Laundering:  http://www.safetyforum.com/lemon

    CONTACT: Douglas Abrams of Twiggs, Abrams, Strickland and Rabenau,
919-828-4357; or Ralph Hoar of Safetyforum.com, 703-469-3700.