Vehicle Safety Recall

A manufacturer's federally supervised obligation to notify owners of a safety defect and fix it free of charge - and the rules on what a dealer may sell with a recall still open.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of law firms for this.

What it means

A safety recall is issued when a manufacturer decides, or the federal safety agency determines, that a vehicle or an item of equipment has a defect that poses an unreasonable risk to safety or does not comply with a federal safety standard. The manufacturer must notify the agency and the registered owners, and must remedy the defect without charge - by repair, replacement, or a refund - through its dealers. The free remedy is not required for a vehicle that was already older than an age set by the statute when the recall was announced, but for a vehicle that qualifies there is no deadline for the owner to bring it in, and the obligation follows the vehicle to later owners - which is why the agency maintains a public lookup by vehicle identification number.

Recalls are enforceable against the manufacturer, not the owner: nothing requires an owner to have the work done, though an unrepaired defect can matter to a later injury claim and to a used-car sale. Dealers, by contrast, are barred by federal law from selling or leasing a new vehicle with an open recall until it has been remedied. That prohibition does not extend to used vehicles under federal law, and whether a used-car dealer must disclose or fix an open recall before sale is a matter of state law and of the dealer's own representations - which is why the lookup exists for buyers.

A recall is also a public statement by the manufacturer that a defect exists, and it is routinely used as evidence in product-liability claims arising from the defect. A recall notice received after an accident, or a recall the owner was never notified of, is worth keeping.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

For most owners a recall needs a dealer appointment, not a lawyer. Advice becomes worth having when a dealer refuses or charges for recall work, when an injury may be connected to a recalled defect, or when a used vehicle was sold with an open recall the seller knew about and said nothing - each of those is a claim, and the second is usually a substantial one.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono programme or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

Find a lawyer for this in your state

Choose your state. Each link opens the Motor Vehicle Defects directory page for the city in that state with the most currently published law firms that list this work; where a state has more than one, the others open under it. Where a state has no Motor Vehicle Defects listing yet, the link opens the broader Cars & Motor Vehicles page instead and is marked so. The list is generated when this page loads, so a state whose listings have lapsed drops out rather than becoming a dead link.

• Alabama (Birmingham)
  +1 other city

  • Montgomery
• Alaska (Anchorage)
• Arizona (Chandler)
  +6 other cities

  • Gilbert
  • Glendale
  • Mesa
  • Phoenix
  • Scottsdale
  • Tucson
• Arkansas (Little Rock)
• California (Long Beach)
  +17 other cities

  • Anaheim
  • Bakersfield
  • Chula Vista
  • Fontana
  • Fremont
  • Irvine
  • Los Angeles
  • Modesto
  • Oakland
  • Riverside
  • Sacramento
  • San Bernardino
  • and 5 smaller
• Colorado (Aurora)
  +2 other cities

  • Denver
  • Colorado Springs
• Connecticut (Bridgeport, Cars & Motor Vehicles)
• Delaware (Wilmington)
• District of Columbia (Washington)
• Florida (Hialeah)
  +5 other cities

  • Miami
  • Jacksonville
  • Orlando
  • St Petersburg
  • Tampa
• Georgia (Atlanta)
• Hawaii (Honolulu, Cars & Motor Vehicles)
• Idaho (Boise)
• Illinois (Chicago)
• Indiana (Fort Wayne)
  +1 other city

  • Indianapolis
• Iowa (Des Moines)
• Kansas (Wichita)
• Kentucky (Lexington)
  +1 other city

  • Louisville
• Louisiana (Baton Rouge)
  +1 other city

  • New Orleans
• Maine (Portland)
• Maryland (Baltimore)
• Massachusetts (Boston)
• Michigan (Detroit)
• Minnesota (Minneapolis)
  +1 other city

  • Saint Paul
• Mississippi (Jackson)
• Missouri (Kansas City)
  +1 other city

  • St. Louis
• Montana (Billings)
• Nebraska (Lincoln)
  +1 other city

  • Omaha
• Nevada (Henderson)
  +3 other cities

  • Las Vegas
  • North Las Vegas
  • Reno
• New Hampshire (Manchester)
• New Jersey (Jersey City)
  +1 other city

  • Newark
• New Mexico (Albuquerque)
• New York (Buffalo)
  +2 other cities

  • Rochester
  • New York City
• North Carolina (Charlotte)
  +5 other cities

  • Durham
  • Fayetteville
  • Greensboro
  • Raleigh
  • Winston-Salem
• North Dakota (Fargo, Cars & Motor Vehicles)
• Ohio (Cincinnati)
  +3 other cities

  • Cleveland
  • Toledo
  • Columbus
• Oklahoma (Oklahoma City)
  +1 other city

  • Tulsa
• Oregon (Portland)
• Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh)
  +1 other city

  • Philadelphia
• Rhode Island (Providence)
• South Carolina (Columbia)
• South Dakota (Sioux Falls)
• Tennessee (Memphis)
  +1 other city

  • Nashville
• Texas (Austin)
  +12 other cities

  • Houston
  • Laredo
  • San Antonio
  • Corpus Christi
  • Arlington
  • Dallas
  • Fort Worth
  • Garland
  • Irving
  • Plano
  • El Paso
  • Lubbock
• Utah (Salt Lake City)
• Vermont (Burlington, Cars & Motor Vehicles)
• Virginia (Chesapeake)
  +3 other cities

  • Norfolk
  • Richmond
  • Virginia Beach
• Washington (Seattle)
  +1 other city

  • Tacoma
• West Virginia (Charleston)
• Wisconsin (Madison)
  +1 other city

  • Milwaukee
• Wyoming (Cheyenne, Cars & Motor Vehicles)

Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• CDL DisqualificationThe federally defined list of offences that take away a commercial driver's licence - including offences committed in a personal car, and a lower alcohol limit than applies to other drivers.
• Contesting a Traffic TicketWhat a moving violation citation actually is, the difference between an infraction and a traffic misdemeanour, and the procedures - hearing, written defence, traffic school - for answering one.
• Driving Record PointsThe system most states use to score moving violations against a driver's record, with a licence suspension when the total crosses a threshold - and an interstate compact that makes an out-of-state ticket count at home.
• DUI / DWI (Impaired Driving)Driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs - a charge that almost always runs as two separate cases at once, one criminal and one over the licence.
• Event Data Recorder (Vehicle Black Box) EvidenceThe crash data a modern vehicle records about itself in the moments before an impact - what the federal standard requires it to capture, who owns it, and who may retrieve it.
• Field Sobriety TestsThe roadside balance, coordination and eye-movement exercises an officer uses to build probable cause for an impaired-driving arrest - usually voluntary, and never the same thing as the chemical test that follows.
• Hours-of-Service Rules (Commercial Trucking)Federal limits on how long a commercial driver may drive and work, and the electronic records that show whether those limits were kept.
• Ignition Interlock DeviceA breath-testing device wired into a vehicle that stops it starting if the driver has been drinking - required by many states after an impaired-driving conviction as a condition of driving at all.
• Implied Consent and Administrative License SuspensionThe rule in every state that by driving you have agreed to a chemical test for alcohol or drugs after a lawful arrest - and the licence suspension that follows a refusal or a failed test, separately from any criminal case.
• Leaving the Scene of an Accident (Hit and Run)The legal duties every state imposes on a driver involved in a crash - to stop, to exchange information and to help anyone hurt - and the separate criminal offence of driving away instead.
• Lemon Law and Warranty RightsRules that entitle a buyer to a refund or replacement when a new vehicle has a defect the manufacturer cannot fix in a reasonable number of attempts.
• Negligent Entrustment (Lending a Vehicle)The claim against a person who lent a car to someone they knew, or should have known, was unfit to drive it - the owner's own negligence, separate from the driver's.
• No-Fault Car InsuranceA system in which your own insurer pays your medical bills after a crash regardless of who caused it - used in a minority of states, and it limits when you can sue.
• Odometer Fraud and the Odometer DisclosureRolling back or replacing an odometer to hide a vehicle's true mileage is a federal offence, and every transfer of a vehicle must come with a written mileage statement the buyer can sue over if it is false.
• Permissive Use (Insurance Follows the Car)Which policy pays when someone drives a borrowed car with the owner's permission - the omnibus clause, the exclusions that defeat it, and the owner-liability statutes some states add.
• Policy LimitsThe maximum an insurance policy will pay - and usually the real ceiling on what a claim is worth, whatever the injury.
• Rideshare Accident Insurance (App Periods)Which insurance applies when a rideshare vehicle is in a crash depends on what the driver's app was doing at that moment - the three periods state transportation network company laws define, and the gap that personal policies leave.
• Salvage and Rebuilt TitlesThe title brands a state applies to a vehicle an insurer has declared a total loss, what a rebuilt brand means, and the federal database built to stop a branded title being washed clean in another state.
• SR-22 and Financial Responsibility FilingsThe certificate an insurer files with the state to prove a high-risk driver is carrying the required liability coverage - what triggers it, why it is not itself insurance, and what happens if the policy behind it lapses.
• Total Loss and Diminished ValueWhat happens when an insurer decides a damaged vehicle is not worth repairing - and the separate claim for a repaired car that is now worth less.
• Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist CoverageCoverage on your own policy that pays when the driver who hurt you had no insurance, or nowhere near enough - and it is the coverage people most often discover they declined.
• Used Car Buyers Guide (FTC Used Car Rule)The window sticker a dealer must display on every used vehicle offered for sale, stating whether it comes with a dealer warranty or as is - and why the sticker overrides the contract.

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