Got a few minutes? Check out this lawyers podcast. Part 1

• Got nineteen minutes to spare? Then sit back and take a listen to the podcast that I mentioned above.
  
  In it he talks about some shops telling a consumer that there is a law that makes it illegal for the owner to take their car if the brakes are found to be unsafe. He is correct in that there is no such law. Now if he stopped right there then there would be no issue, but as you will see he carries this out and makes a number of other statements that really need to be examined closer.
  
  While there is no law that states the shop can keep the owner from taking the car, the shop can be held liable if something did happen when the owner does take the car. This kind of thing is sort of like playing the game of "Cups and Balls" with Penn and Teller. From the shops point of view they have as much of a chance at being held liable for someone else's actions as you do of knowing which cup the ball is under. In this example, you could replay the video or else back it up and then you would get the answer for a given event, but shops don't get to have that kind of an option.
  
  One of the key points that Mr. Lehto tries to make is "If the brakes were that unsafe, how did the owner get the car there in the first place?" The answer is without the owner having total regard for him/herself nor the other motorists that were out there on the road with them. Frankly I don't think there is a law against that either. but maybe he will finally chime in and let everyone know. (Doubtful)
  
  In a real event where a car is genuinely unsafe to be driven the only safe thing that the shop can do is have the car towed to where-ever the owner wants it to go and if the owner won't pay to do that then the shop should. The laws that are on the books don't protect the shop from liability at that point no matter what is signed in the form of a waiver, or how much documentation has taken place so they might as well go ahead and lose a little right now instead of risking even the time that it would take to fight any other legal challenges. At least once the car is on the tow truck the shop has truly done the best that they could under the circumstances at that point in time. Now "some" lawyers will probably argue that and make a good point one way or the other but they still look like Teller with the "Cups and Balls" from my point of view. BTW, the advice of having the car towed from the shop comes from the repair associations lawyer and even they say that the customer can still refuse that solution, drive the car away and turn around and try and hold the shop liable if something does happen.
  
  Later in that podcast Mr. Lehto talks about a shop that he goes to and recommends. He talks a good bit about how he bought a used car that he took to them and he trusts them so much that he told them to do anything and everything that the car needed, no questions asked. I'll discuss that with the next post.