The New York Times wrote a good article a couple of weeks ago on a phenomenon I’m seeing more and more in my car fraud practice: used car dealers are now installing GPS and SID (Starter Interrupt Devices) on the cars they sell. While everyone knows what a GPS does, these GPS devices don’t sit on the dashes of cars and help drivers navigate to their destinations. Instead, they allow dealers and finance companies to track the whereabouts of cars for repossession. 

Meanwhile, the Starter Interrupt Device is less well-known and even more dangerous. It does exactly what it says it does: it allows a dealer or finance company to interrupt (i.e. prevent) the car from starting. Dealers and finance companies can “flip the switch” on the SID remotely. So, they never have to leave their office (and sometimes can deploy it from a smartphone) and with the flip of a digital switch can make a vehicle stop working. (If properly installed, the SID will not stop a vehicle that is in motion, but that does not fix the safety concerns of being stranded.)

Some dealers disclose the existence of these devices to consumers, some don’t. Those who do disclose their use of the device often try to explain that these devices “help locate the vehicle if it is stolen”. While that may be true, the actual purposes are to a) locate the vehicle for repossession and b) incentivize the consumer to make payments by preventing the consumer from using the vehicle if he or she misses a payment. 

The used car industry’s expanding use of these devices raises many potential legal issues that have yet to be litigated in Kentucky. A leading attorney advising the used car industry has described both 1) failing to disclose a GPS or SID and 2) charging consumers for the devices as among the “Ten ‘Worst Practices’ for Dealers”. Failing to disclose the existence of a GPS and/or SID on a new or used vehicle may be a violation of the Motor Vehicle Retail Installment Sales Act. 

Another area ripe for abuse is in the repossession of a vehicle by use of a Starter Interrupt Device. Aside from the safety issues raised by someone crippling a vehicle remotely, a dealer’s use of a Starter Interrupt Device can potentially violate, among other laws, the Uniform Commercial Code and the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act. 

If you discover that a car dealer sold you a vehicle equipped with a GPS or SID unit without disclosing it to you, you need to contact an attorney to explore your legal rights. You can find a consumer attorney in your state at the National Association of Consumer Advocate’s website.  

I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week trying a car fraud case in Jefferson Circuit Court. It was my first trial as a lead attorney and the first case Ben Carter Law has taken to trial. 

My client, Renay Seals, alleged that the Defendant, Mak Cars, Inc dba Unique Motorsports (Mak Cars also does business in Louisville as Hot Deals on Wheels Used Cars) sold her a car with more than 245,000 miles on it after assuring her that a) the car only had 54,000 additional miles on it beyond the 21,420 on the odometer and b) the car was eligible for a 24 month/24,000 mile warranty. 

Tommie Seals, Renay's son, with the 2006 Dodge Charger the day after Renay purchased it from Mak Cars, Inc. Tommie and Renay would learn the truth about the car—that it had at least 245,000 miles on it and was not eligible for an extended warranty—a month later. 

The jury found that Mak Cars, Inc violated the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act and ordered the Defendant to pay Renay: 

• $13,927.42, the price Renay paid for the 2006 Dodge Charger;
• $5,000 for the anxiety, humiliation, and frustration Mak Cars's deception caused her; and
• $245,000 in punitive damages. 

The jury also found that my client was 10% responsible for what happened, which reduces the amount of the judgment for the purchase price and mental suffering by the same proportion. 

There are three great things about this verdict. (Okay, there are a lot more than three, but I want to talk about three here.)

First, Renay is from Louisiana. The only experience she had with Louisville, Kentucky was coming here to look at a car she thought had 21,240 miles on it and getting hosed. With its verdict, the jury said, "What happened to you is not acceptable. It's not how we treat people here." Renay and her son left Louisville yesterday knowing that Louisville, Kentucky has good people in it. 

Second, I had a chance to talk with some jurors after the case. One of them said, "Do you know why we set punitive damages at $245,000?" We had set the maximum amount we could recover at $250,000, so I told her I just thought they didn't want to give the max.

"No, we set it at $245,000 because that was how many miles the car had on it. We thought that would be an appropriate symbol to deter other dealers from doing something like this."

AWESOME. This shows the jury was thinking even harder than I was about this case. Which I didn't think was possible until it was. 

Third, another juror told me that the jury wanted to write on the verdict that Renay had to spend a little bit of the money it ordered Defendant to pay her to return to Louisville and attend Derby next year. This jury was truly appalled that someone from out of town was treated so badly by a Louisville business.

Yesterday was a great day for my client: the jury validated her 18-month fight both out and then in court with a company that had done her wrong. It was a great day for me: it was a scary thing to go to trial on my own for the first time. And, I hope, the jury's verdict will help other Kentucky consumers and their attorneys get fair compensation for wrongs done to them.

Before Renay and Tommie hit the road yesterday, I made them let me take a selfie with them. 

If you suspect you or your client is a victim of automobile fraud, one of the first things you will need to do is figure out who owns the dealership. This can be difficult because many dealerships are simply "doing business as" [name of dealership]. They are doing business under an assumed name while being owned by another company, partnership, or individual.  

The first place to look for ownership interests is the Kentucky Secretary of State's website. There, you can enter the name of the car dealership and, hopefully, find an active company, partnership, or certificate to do business under an assumed name.  

Consumer laws exist to protect Kentuckians from some car dealers' abusive sales tactics. 

Unfortunately, sometimes that doesn't work. The next step is to file a Request to Inspect Public Records from the Kentucky Motor Vehicle Commission. I did this yesterday in a case I'm researching against a dealership that, I believe, wrongfully repossessed my client's car (and did so in a fraudulent, abusive, inhumane way). When I called the Motor Vehicle Commission, I asked how I would request the dealership's most recent application for a license to sell cars in Kentucky and was told that they could fax or mail me the Request to Inspect Public Records. 

"I's not available on your website?" I asked. 

"No. I can fax it or mail it to you."  

Here is a .pdf of the Request to Inspect Public Records from Kentucky's Motor Vehicle Commission. Use it to request the most recent application for a car dealer's license. Here is a copy of the blank application to become a car dealer in Kentucky. It will give you a sense of the information you will get by requesting the dealer's license application. 

Of course, if you are a consumer and you suspect you have been victimized by a car dealer through fraudulent or scammy tactics, you should consult a lawyer to determine what, if any, legal recourse you might have to fix the fraud, unwind the deal, or pursue the dealer for money damages. This is not the post to explain the many, many ways that car dealers can take advantage of consumers through odometer rollbacks, fraudulent omissions of material facts, scammy financing, yo-yo sales, and wrongful repossessions. This is just to say that you should contact a lawyer because laws exist to protect consumers from the predatory tactics some car dealers use to make a quick (and highly profitable) sale.