Consumer Protection

Arizona’s lemon law is very limited. For used cars, it provides warranty protection for 15 days or 500 miles (whichever first occurs) if you purchased a used car from a car dealer. If you purchased a new car, the warranty protection is for up to two (2) years or 24,000 miles (whichever first occurs).

If you purchased your car from someone who is not a car dealer, you do have rights. However, those rights are not under the lemon law. You may have rights under Arizona’s Consumer Fraud Act, for breach of contract, fraud, or possibly under certain federal statutes.

Yes. Although pay day loans have been outlawed in Arizona, title loans are still lawful. Title lenders may charge interest exceeding 200% and, in addition, the lender takes a lien on the borrower’s car. This means the title lender may repossess the car upon default (failure to make the loan payments) even if there is a prior lender’s lien that is greater than the car’s value.

If you owe a debt and are not making the agreed upon payments, a creditor may sue you to collect the debt. If the creditor gets a judgment against you, the creditor may seek wage or account garnishments. A garnishment is a court order requiring your employer (in the case of wages) or bank or credit union (in the case of an account) to turn over a portion of your wages or the funds in an account to the creditor holding the judgment.

Certain types of income are protected from creditors even after judgment. These include Social Security benefits, workers’ and unemployment insurance benefits, child support and veterans’ pensions. Other funds including some private pensions may also be protected, but may lose protection after payment to the recipient.

If you fail to pay your monthly or special assessment, the homeowners association may sue for the delinquent assessments and may file a foreclosure action, even though the property is subject to a mortgage. It is not a defense, to either of these actions, to claim that the homeowners association, its board or its manager is doing a poor job managing the association.

​You may be able to do so. If you have a loan that was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Department offers different repayment plans. You may find additional information at the Federal Student Aid website.

A bankruptcy is a Federal Court procedure that allows consumers and businesses to ​ “discharge,” ​​ i.e., to eliminate personal liability to creditors. During a bankruptcy proceeding, you are protected from creditors; however, your non-exempt assets (those not protected by law) may be sold by the bankruptcy trustee and distributed to creditors.

There are different types of bankruptcy actions. The principal types for individuals are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.