Getting a letter in the mail is exciting, or it might be. It’s more likely to be an email now. But a letter might be grandpa or grandma sending you a birthday gift. Maybe there’s money inside! It could be a bill (not so exciting), or it could be junk mail. 
But if you are a smog shop or station owner anywhere in California from Los Angeles to San Francisco, from Eureka to Bakersfield, and you get a Bureau of Automotive Repair letter a) you’d better read it, b) you’d better respond to it, and c) you’d better call an attorney to assist you. In fact, you’d better call Automotive Defense Specialists, because that’s what we do: defend you from the Bureau of Automotive Repair which seems to specialize in trying to “catch out” SMOG shop owners.
Let’s face it: in many cases people who own SMOG shops get as much as two thirds of their living from emissions testing, and if that gets wiped out, their business is gone. It is a pretty well-known economic theory that if you lose 10% of your business you can probably – not always, but probably – survive. If you lose two thirds of it, you’ve got no chance.
A Bureau Of Automotive Repair Letter Is Bad News
Any Bureau of Automotive Repair letter is bad news. One of the major problems you have is that it employs some VERY expensive attorneys – at YOUR expense as a taxpayer (!) – whose job is to close you down. You have done something wrong (even if you haven’t|) and therefore you don’t deserve to be in business. That’s the way they see it.
At Automotive Defense Specialists we view it the other way around. Yes, there will always be one or two rogue businesses who should be closed down, but not those who are honest, and do everything they can to keep within the law, but perhaps make a genuine mistake. Heck, we all make mistakes!
The BAR has so many things that it accepts as “gospel”. So, for example, if you test ten identical vehicles from 1998 and pass them all, and then two years later they all fail their next emissions test, then you are at fault!! The BAR says that if they passed two years ago, they couldn’t ALL fail two years later! So in effect you passed some vehicles which should not have been passed. That means you are a bad boy and get a Bureau of Automotive Repair letter. It’s convoluted and complicated, and there are many “gotchas” that seem very unfair for hard-working technicians and SMOG station owners.
Believe us, we have seen it all. The good news is that we have an astonishing record of success defending business owners from the antics of the Bureau of Automotive Repair, and we provide all clients with a free consultation. To book yours, click on the Free Consultation link at the top right.