Nissan Motor Acceptance Company RIPOFF Illegally repossessed car in Louisiana in 2004 while car was in bodyshop. Torrance California

Self-help Law for Reposessions:
The law became in effect in lousiana in 1/2005 as summarized:

"Presently (pre january 2005), a lender must go through a lengthy and costly judicial procedure which will ultimately require the local sheriff to seize the borrower's vehicle. Placing Louisiana in line with the other forty-nine states, Senate Bill 768 will allow the lender to use a licensed repossession agent to seize a borrowers vehicle if they have a payment that is more than 60 days past due, and only after receiving notice from the lender. (in effect as of janauary 2005)"
http://senate.legis.state.la.us/SessionInfo/2004/RS/Highlights/LinkShell.asp?s=Commerce


So questions:
1) How many days past due were you on your payments?
2) did you receive notice from the lender about them reposessing? Notice could have come to you by postal mail.
3) and in addition to this law, the lender could just send a notification to your local law clerk or local law enforcement to initiate the reposession:
House Bill 1489
http://www.legis.state.la.us/bills/byinst.asp?sessionid=04rs&billtype=HB&billno=1489


So again, there is A LOT of information missing from your story, and without this, we can only assume that Nissan did everything they could to make you pay for your car, and notified you that they were to reposess the car in question.

Since you conveniently left that information out of the report, we have to question as to why Nissan would see the need to reposess your car?

That would mean that you were late on your payments, and when you are late, then they have every right to collect the car from anywhere you have it parked; whether be on a private property, at your home, or wherever you took your car to.

YOU dont and are not required to sign a volunteer to surrender notice to Nissan (that is only in the case where you, acknowledge that you can't make the payments, and you give them the car, meaning you have Nissan's total compliance on this). They can just take the car from you.

As for the $12,500. THEY are allowed to hit you up with the balance of the car till such time they are able to sell the car off to another buyer, and YOU have to pay the 'difference" in value. Menaing, that if your car was blue booked at $23,000 at time of reposession, and they were only able to sell it for $12,000 you'd be responsible for the balance. Any deficiency in the amount recovered through the sale can be collected from the debtor, even though he or she may no longer be in possession.

as for self-help laws, this is not hte case in this situation. you were under contract to pay in timely fashion for your vehicle, and agreed that if you were late, or deliquent, that the company has every right to reposess the vehicle; which they have done.

self-help moreover applies more to "lanlord vs tennant" situations.

If you pull out your original financing contract with the lender (Nissan, or the local bank or credit union or whoever), it will clearly spell out the terms of the loan. The due date each month, first payment due, etc.

There will also be sections in the contract that spell out what happens if the loan is in default. It will clearly state what your (and the lender's) responsibilities are. It is extremely rare for a major lender like Nissan, Ford, GMAC, etc to mess up and repo the wrong vehicle, or repo it when it's only 15 days past due, etc.

I doubt that you need an attorney, you can read the finance contract yourself and see if they repo'd within the terms of your contract. Normally a half hour to 1 hour consult with an attorney would be in the $75 to $150 range...so if you really feel like they repo'd your vehicle in error, then you might want to seek counsel.