Amy Maclear

Los Angeles

Commercial Litigation & Fraud

Amy Maclear has spent more than two decades in civil litigation, with the last twelve years focused on one of California's most demanding corners of the plaintiffs' bar: automotive consumer warranty and fraud defense. She represents auto manufacturers against claims under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and related fraud theories -- including those carrying punitive damages -- across California courts and arbitrations.

Maclear came to the automotive consumer space around 2013, when fraud-based claims began gaining traction statewide. What drew her in, she said, was the complexity of the work and the scope of thinking it demands. "It's a high-volume, high-stakes area where individual cases matter, but the broader strategy across hundreds or thousands of cases matters even more," she said. "I enjoy that balance, the legal nuance, the evolving case law and the need to think several moves ahead in a mass litigation environment."

That orientation toward portfolio-level strategy has defined much of her practice. Among her notable matters is the In re Ford DPS6 PowerShift Transmission Litigation (JCCP Nos. 4856 & 4924; MDL No. 2814), coordinated state and federal proceedings involving defective transmission allegations across thousands of vehicles. Maclear served in a key strategic role supporting Ford's defense across both forums, working to align litigation posture across jurisdictions and focus the courts on threshold, common issues. "The coordinated approach contributed to the efficient resolution of thousands of cases and helped shape practical guidance for managing high-volume consumer automotive litigation," Maclear said.

One of the defining challenges of that matter -- and of consumer warranty defense broadly -- was building case-management protocols capable of reaching decisions on threshold legal issues before cases stalled. "Without early clarity, cases tend to stall or proceed inefficiently on a case-by-case basis," Maclear said. That challenge is compounded by a statutory framework that was not written for modern filing volumes. "The key statutes governing these claims were drafted decades ago and did not contemplate the scale of filings now seen in California," she said. "As a result, courts and litigants are often required to apply legacy language to modern, mass-filed litigation, creating inconsistency and uncertainty."

The fee-shifting structure built into these statutes adds another layer of difficulty, creating incentives that can work against early resolution. Maclear has worked to develop approaches that account for competing interests across plaintiff firms while collaborating with courts -- particularly the Los Angeles Superior Court, which handles the highest concentration of consumer warranty filings in the state -- on processes that can move large dockets without sacrificing fairness.