In addition to providing timely responses to the Bureau of Automotive Repair requests, your automotive defense attorney will likewise request documents and information important to the defenses of your case. We will reveal what information the BAR has failed to provide as well as the evidence they plan to use at trial. We will analyze the information for errors, inconsistencies, and mitigating factors.

Factors of mitigation include, but are not limited to, evidence of measures taken to correct business practices so as to minimize the likelihood of recurrence of the alleged violation, evidence that the allegation was not part of a pattern or practice, and evidence of no loss to consumer and no damage to consumer’s property. We may also prove with newly discovered evidence that the allegations did not in fact occur as stated or the extent to which the allegations are described in the Accusation is exaggerated.

Using evidence gathered from both sides, the Paronyan Law Firm will scrutinize each of the BAR’s allegations, one by one. Once doubts and weaknesses are exposed, the BAR will be more willing to dismiss or reduce alleged violations rather than spend more time and resources on an uncertain hearing.

If the incident was an unintentional first-time mistake or the allegations are entirely speculative, the Paronyan Law Firm will compellingly argue your defenses, making it clear that there is no justification for the discipline.

Your BAR defense lawyer will represent you at prehearing and settlement conferences. The prehearing conference, like a pretrial conference in a civil matter, is held to identify and define factual and legal issues and to expedite the hearing. The conference may concern one or more of the following: an exploration of settlement possibilities, clarification of issues, rulings on the identity and number of witnesses, objections to offers of evidence, motions for intervention, and other matters that will promote the orderly and timely conduct of the hearing.

Settlement conferences are authorized by law and may be ordered by the administrative law judge. Communications made in settlement negotiations are protected. If settlement is not entered, then the case will move on to a formal hearing in front an administrative law judge of the Office of Administrative Hearings. Your lawyer from the Paronyan Law Firm will be fully prepared to represent you at the hearing with the necessary exhibits, expert witnesses, trial briefs, special arrangements and more.

During the hearing, the rules of evidence are administrative rules, neither purely criminal nor purely civil. Without a statute making it applicable, the California Evidence Code does not apply to administrative proceedings. Although administrative proceedings may be punitive, they are not criminal in nature and need not be conducted in accordance with the rules of procedure or evidence employed in criminal courts. Thus, relevant evidence will be admitted if it is the kind of evidence on which responsible people are accustomed to relying in the conduct of serious affairs. Accordingly, although administrative rules of evidence are not strict, parties to an administrative proceeding have a due process right to a fair hearing, which includes the right to present issues of fact and law in a deliberate, regular, and orderly manner.