Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board: Filing to Decision

The board is not a court. It is an arbitration forum inside the Attorney General’s office, created by Chapter 681 of the Florida Statutes to decide whether a new vehicle qualifies as a lemon and what the manufacturer owes. This article covers who sits on the panels, how a dispute gets in front of them, what a hearing looks like, and what a decision obligates the manufacturer to do. The repair-attempt counts and out-of-service math that make a vehicle eligible in the first place are covered in Florida lemon law refund and replacement rules, and the arbitration program sits inside the wider structure of Florida consumer protection laws.

What the arbitration board is

“Board” is a defined term. Under Fla. Stat. § 681.102(2) it means the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, and “department” throughout the chapter means the Department of Legal Affairs, which is the Attorney General’s office. The Attorney General’s Lemon Law Arbitration Division administers the program, staffs it, and runs a toll-free hotline for questions about it.

Cases are decided by panels, not by a single arbitrator. Fla. Stat. § 681.1095 directs the board to hear cases in locations around the state so a consumer can attend a hearing at a reasonably convenient place, assigns three board members to each panel, and requires a majority vote of that three-member panel to render a decision.

The written statement of consumer rights that dealers hand over at delivery, and the conduct of hearings before the board, are governed by Rule Chapter 2-30, Florida Administrative Code. Rule 2-30.001 took effect January 17, 2023.

When a dispute reaches the board

Not every Lemon Law complaint goes straight to arbitration. The route depends on whether the manufacturer runs its own state-certified dispute-settlement program.

Where a manufacturer has a certified procedure, Fla. Stat. § 681.109 requires the consumer to file there first, no later than 60 days after the Lemon Law rights period expires. Two things can then move the dispute to the board. If the certified procedure does not render a decision within 40 days of filing, the consumer may apply to the department to have the dispute removed to the board. If the procedure does decide but the consumer is not satisfied with the decision or with the manufacturer’s compliance, the consumer may apply to have the dispute submitted to the board. A manufacturer gets no matching right of review from its own program’s decision.

Where the manufacturer has no certified procedure, or its procedure has no jurisdiction over the dispute, the consumer applies directly to the department under § 681.109(3).

Requesting arbitration

The department screens every request before the board sees it. Screening is a gatekeeping function, not a preview of the merits: the department decides whether the dispute is potentially entitled to relief under Chapter 681 and forwards the ones that are.

1. Exhaust the manufacturer's certified program, if there is one

   The manufacturer’s written warranty materials identify whether it participates in a state-certified dispute-settlement procedure. Filing there is a precondition when one exists, and the 60-day and 30-day windows in Fla. Stat. § 681.109 run from the expiration of the Lemon Law rights period and from the program’s final action.

2. Submit the Request for Arbitration on the department's form

   The request is made on a form prescribed by the department, which is the Attorney General’s office (Fla. Stat. § 681.109(5)). Current forms and e-filing instructions are published by the Lemon Law Arbitration Division.

3. Wait for the eligibility screening

   The department may reject a dispute it determines to be fraudulent or outside the board’s authority. A dispute rejected for insufficient evidence can be reconsidered when new information is submitted, and the department may reject it again after a second review if the evidence is clearly insufficient. Rejections come with written notice and a brief explanation to both the consumer and the manufacturer.

4. Attend the scheduled hearing

   Once the department approves the request and forwards it, the board schedules the hearing. Manufacturers have no choice about participating: Fla. Stat. § 681.1095 requires a manufacturer to submit to arbitration conducted by the board when the consumer requests it and the department has found the dispute eligible.

A rejection at the screening stage does not end the matter. Under Fla. Stat. § 681.109(7), a consumer whose dispute is rejected may file a lawsuit to enforce the remedies in the chapter, and the department’s determination is admissible in that civil action. Claims about how a vehicle was marketed or sold, as opposed to how it performs under warranty, run on a separate track described in suing under FDUTPA.

What happens at a hearing

Hearings are adversarial but informal compared with a trial. Both sides may present oral and written testimony, put on witnesses and evidence relevant to the dispute, cross-examine the other side’s witnesses, and be represented by counsel. The board may administer oaths or affirmations, and it may inspect the vehicle when a party asks or when the panel considers an inspection appropriate. Those procedures are set out in Fla. Stat. § 681.1095.

The clock is statutory. The board hears the dispute within 40 days and renders a decision within 60 days after the date the request for arbitration is approved, under § 681.1095. The panel may continue a hearing on its own motion or on a party’s request for good cause. A continuance requested by the consumer waives those time periods. The department may also investigate a dispute at the board’s request.

The standard the panel applies is the repair-attempt standard in Fla. Stat. § 681.104: relief is granted if a reasonable number of attempts have been undertaken to correct the nonconformity. That is presumed when the same nonconformity has been subject to repair at least three times plus a final repair attempt by the manufacturer and still exists, or when the vehicle has been out of service for repairs for a cumulative total of 30 or more days, 60 or more days for a recreational vehicle.

Decisions, compliance, and appeals

A decision either awards relief or dismisses the case. Relief under Fla. Stat. § 681.104(2) is a repurchase at the full purchase price less a reasonable offset for use, or a replacement vehicle acceptable to the consumer, with reasonably incurred collateral and incidental charges included either way. The consumer has an unconditional right to choose the refund instead of a replacement. The offset for use is a formula, not a negotiation: miles attributable to the consumer through the settlement or hearing date, multiplied by the base selling price excluding taxes and fees, divided by 120,000, or by 60,000 for a recreational vehicle (Fla. Stat. § 681.102(19)).

A decision is final unless a party appeals. Under Fla. Stat. § 681.1095, a petition to the circuit court must be filed within 30 days after receipt of the decision, in the county where the consumer resides, where the vehicle was acquired, or where the hearing was conducted. The appealing party sends a copy of the petition to the department within 7 days of filing, and furnishes the department with a copy of the settlement, order, or judgment within 15 days after final disposition. The appeal is a trial de novo, so the circuit court retries the dispute rather than reviewing the panel’s reasoning.

Complaints about how the arbitration program itself is administered, as opposed to the merits of a vehicle dispute, go through the same office that runs it. The general complaint route is described in filing a Florida attorney general complaint.

Vehicles and disputes outside the board’s reach

The chapter’s definition of “motor vehicle” in Fla. Stat. § 681.102(14) does the most work in limiting the board’s docket. It covers new vehicles sold in Florida, including demonstrators and leased vehicles carrying a manufacturer’s warranty, and it excludes vehicles that run only on tracks, off-road vehicles, trucks over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, motorcycles, mopeds, electric bicycles, and the living facilities of recreational vehicles. Recreational vehicle disputes involving those living quarters run through the separate mediation and arbitration program defined in § 681.102(17).

Even an eligible vehicle can lose. Manufacturers raise the affirmative defenses in Fla. Stat. § 681.104(4): that the alleged nonconformity does not substantially impair the use, value, or safety of the vehicle; that it resulted from accident, abuse, neglect, or unauthorized modification by someone other than the manufacturer or its authorized service agent; or that the claim was not filed in good faith. Any other affirmative defense allowed by law is available too.