Mary Arens serves as counsel for a number of automobile and motorcycle manufacturers that are subject to state lemon laws, federal warranty laws and consumer protection statutes. Since 2000, Ms. Arens has taken over two thousand cases to resolution, including more than one thousand in Ohio alone. The Ohio lawsuits have required Ms. Arens to appear before trial level courts in each of Ohio’s counties, as well as courts of appeals and federal district courts. In the other thirteen states in which Ms. Arens has primary responsibility, she directs and supervises local counsel and is actively involved in drafting all pleadings and discovery and developing case and settlement strategy.
This representation has provided Ms. Arens extensive knowledge and experience with regard to state lemon laws, federal warranty laws and consumer protection statutes. These cases require her to engage in case evaluation, development of discovery strategy, preparation of discovery documents, depositions, expert witness preparation and cross-examination, settlement negotiations, mediations, motion hearings and trial.
Ms. Arens was recently able to gain summary judgment on the issue that the client, a manufacturer of a chassis, was not the “manufacturer” of the plaintiff’s motor vehicle for purposes of state lemon law liability. Ms. Arens has also been successful in arguing that specific models of vehicles are not consumer products subject to federal warranty statutes, and that defects caused by unauthorized vehicle modifications do not give rise to liability of the manufacturer under state and federal warranty laws. Her knowledge and experience in this area has allowed her to establish that a major domestic automobile manufacturer’s pre-suit arbitration program complies with federal and state requirements.
Ms. Arens has also been responsible for establishing precedent that plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees incurred prior to the filing of suit are not recoverable pursuant to the Ohio lemon law, specifically those incurred during pre-suit mandatory arbitration proceedings. She has also been successful in preventing the recovery of negative equity, rebates and punitive damages as damages for violations of the lemon law.
Ms. Arens is a member of the Ohio and Columbus Bar Associations.