Latest news with #KnightLawGroup
Globe and Mail
23-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
'A 57 ½ Hour Workday': Ford Targets Law Firms Over Lemon Law Billing, Ford Stock (NYSE:F) Notches Up
While the phrase 'Time Lawyer' might sound like an interesting, if wildly unconventional, title for a science fiction novel, it is the kind of unexpected reality legacy automaker Ford (F) found itself facing. It took aim at several law firms in California over their billing in cases involving the state's 'Lemon Law.' Investors seemed pleased enough with Ford fighting back, and shares notched up fractionally in Thursday afternoon's trading. Confident Investing Starts Here: Ford took aim at nine separate defendants in a Los Angeles federal court, referring to the defendants' billing processes as a 'magical mystery tour' of what one report called '…fraudulent…inflat(ion)…' Ford alleged that the l awyers involved spread their time over what reports called 'thousands of cases' against 'several automakers' so that the behavior in question would go unnoticed. Perhaps the centerpiece of Ford's counterattack is the claim that, somehow, one attorney managed to turn in 57.5 billable hours…in one day. And yes, a day still contains 24 hours, leaving it physically impossible for any one attorney to turn in more billable hours than there are hours in a day. Further, reports noted, the time-traveling lawyer in question–Amy Morse with Knight Law Group–was not the only such temporally-gifted entity the law firms employed. In fact, 'numerous' instances of lawyers billing more than 24 hours in any one day emerged. One lawyer apparently managed to bill 29 hours in one day, as said lawyer '…prepare(d) for, travel(ed) to, and attend(ed) two trials…' in one day that were located around 400 miles apart. Jack Cooper, Back From the Dead….Sort Of Not so long ago, we had a report about a company that has a lot of connection with Ford: Jack Cooper. The car hauler was unceremoniously shut down after Ford pulled most of its contracts with the firm. But apparently, a former Jack Cooper employee, McKinley Archie, did not take this lying down. Archie, along with three others, gathered capital together and started Squirrelly LLC, a car hauling company. One of Squirrelly's first deals was with Ford, the reports noted, and now, the former Jack Cooper employee who started his own firm, along with a collection of other, close friends and colleagues, is back hauling Ford. So far, the reports note, the former Jack Cooper employees have hauled 17 loads to dealerships in Michigan, and nine loads to Texas dealerships. Is Ford Stock a Good Buy Right Now? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on F stock based on two Buys, 12 Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 13.46% loss in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $9.59 per share implies 8.58% downside risk. See more F analyst ratings Disclosure
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Ford files $100-million suit over alleged 'Lemon Law' scheme by L.A. lawyers
Ford Motor Co. has filed suit against multiple prominent Southern California law firms and attorneys, alleging that they engaged in a vast and sophisticated fraud scheme to collect at least $100 million in "phantom legal fees' under the state's Lemon Law. In a complaint filed early Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court, the Dearborn, Mich.-based car manufacturer claimed the lawyers violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by working together to carry out the alleged fraud for years. Describing the invoices it received from California lawyers as a 'magical mystery tour of fictitious billings,' Ford claimed that attorneys named in the lawsuit took advantage of a statute designed to protect consumers from faulty products, including cars. Under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, commonly known as California's Lemon Law, automakers are required to pay for legal work, court fees and related expenses associated with defective vehicles. That requirement, Ford alleged, has created an opportunity for lawyers to pad their bottom line by claiming more hours than they actually worked or reporting having been in more than one place at the same time. The complaint alleged that Steve B. Mikhov was the 'ringleader of the criminal enterprise' and that he and Knight Law Group, the Los Angeles-based firm where he was a founding partner, 'orchestrated' the scheme. Emails and phone messages seeking comment from Knight Law Group were not immediately returned Wednesday, nor were requests for comment made via email addresses and cellphone numbers for Mikhov listed in online databases. Ford, which is being represented by New York-based Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, claimed in the complaint that an investigation uncovered payments of legal fees that reflected work that never could have happened. For instance, the auto giant alleged that Knight partner Amy Morse 'billed more than 20 hours per day on at least 66 occasions, 34 of which exceeded 24 hours, including an ostensibly heroic but physically impossible 57.5-hour workday in November 2016." Morse did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday. Edward McNally, a former federal prosecutor and lawyer for Ford at Kasowitz Benson Torres, described how the alleged scheme worked in an emailed statement. 'When you look at any single legal bill for a single case it might show only one or two hours for a given lawyer on a given day—nothing to draw suspicion," he said. "However, when Ford searched across public filings, as alleged in the complaint, the conduct in this case was carried out through a sophisticated and unlawful enterprise of attorneys and law firms that spread their fraudulent and inflated bills across thousands of cases and against many auto makers.' The other defendants who benefited from the alleged conspiracy, Ford claimed, include Knight partner Roger Kirnos and former Knight paralegal Dorothy Becerra; L.A.-based Altman Law Group and its founder and former member attorney, Bryan C. Altman; and San Diego-based Wirtz Law APC and Richard Wirtz, its founder and managing partner. Emails and phone messages seeking comment from Kirnos, Altman Group, Wirtz Law, Altman and Wirtz were not immediately returned Wednesday. Contact information for Becerra could not be located immediately Wednesday. Daniel J. Fetterman, a former federal prosecutor and partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres, said the firm's automaker client has been in contact with federal authorities. 'Ford reported this conduct to the United States Attorney's Office and has been cooperating with a grand jury subpoena served on it in the fall of 2021," Fetterman said. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in L.A., declined to comment Wednesday. Sherman 'Tiger" Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Assn., said via email that the alleged fraudulent scheme "is an affront to the civil justice system and these lawyers who have harmed consumers by needlessly dragging out and driving up costs of litigation should be held accountable." Ford claimed in its filing that the scheme 'has an informal governing structure that at certain times operates as a command hierarchy," meaning it had a chain of command. The arrangement, Ford alleged, violated the RICO Act, which has played a central role in cases against high-profile organizations including Italian crime families, Mexican drug cartels and the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Ford argues it is owed civil damages under the federal racketeering law. The automaker's lawsuit said the attorneys involved "associated with one another in the Enterprise for the common purposes of preparing and filing fraudulent fee applications and billing records, negotiating fraudulent settlements, splitting inflated fees, and funneling fraud proceeds into attorney distributions and extravagant purchases.' Ford said the nine-figure damage total it is seeking would recoup what it lost in allegedly bogus payouts, along with thousands of hours investigating the alleged scheme and what the company described as the harm to its reputation it sustained as a result of representations the lawyers allegedly made in court and online about the amounts they recovered from the automaker. Kyla Christoffersen Powell, president and chief executive of the Civil Justice Assn. of California, said in an emailed statement that the alleged fraud scheme highlighted longstanding problems with the state's Lemon Law. "The shocking attorney conduct outlined in today's filing by Ford underscores the need for the Legislature to consider additional reforms to the lemon law that remove perverse incentives for attorneys," she wrote. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Los Angeles Times
Ford files $100-million suit over alleged ‘Lemon Law' scheme by L.A. lawyers
Ford Motor Co. has filed suit against multiple prominent Southern California law firms and attorneys, alleging that they engaged in a vast and sophisticated fraud scheme to collect at least $100 million in 'phantom legal fees' under the state's Lemon Law. In a complaint filed early Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court, the Dearborn, Mich.-based car manufacturer claimed the lawyers violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by working together to carry out the alleged fraud for years. Describing the invoices it received from California lawyers as a 'magical mystery tour of fictitious billings,' Ford claimed that attorneys named in the lawsuit took advantage of a statute designed to protect consumers from faulty products, including cars. Under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, commonly known as California's Lemon Law, automakers are required to pay for legal work, court fees and related expenses associated with defective vehicles. That requirement, Ford alleged, has created an opportunity for lawyers to pad their bottom line by claiming more hours than they actually worked or reporting having been in more than one place at the same time. The complaint alleged that Steve B. Mikhov was the 'ringleader of the criminal enterprise' and that he and Knight Law Group, the Los Angeles-based firm where he was a founding partner, 'orchestrated' the scheme. Emails and phone messages seeking comment from Knight Law Group were not immediately returned Wednesday, nor were requests for comment made via email addresses and cellphone numbers for Mikhov listed in online databases. Ford, which is being represented by New York-based Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, claimed in the complaint that an investigation uncovered payments of legal fees that reflected work that never could have happened. For instance, the auto giant alleged that Knight partner Amy Morse 'billed more than 20 hours per day on at least 66 occasions, 34 of which exceeded 24 hours, including an ostensibly heroic but physically impossible 57.5-hour workday in November 2016.' Morse did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday. Edward McNally, a former federal prosecutor and lawyer for Ford at Kasowitz Benson Torres, described how the alleged scheme worked in an emailed statement. 'When you look at any single legal bill for a single case it might show only one or two hours for a given lawyer on a given day—nothing to draw suspicion,' he said. 'However, when Ford searched across public filings, as alleged in the complaint, the conduct in this case was carried out through a sophisticated and unlawful enterprise of attorneys and law firms that spread their fraudulent and inflated bills across thousands of cases and against many auto makers.' The other defendants who benefited from the alleged conspiracy, Ford claimed, include Knight partner Roger Kirnos and former Knight paralegal Dorothy Becerra; L.A.-based Altman Law Group and its founder and former member attorney, Bryan C. Altman; and San Diego-based Wirtz Law APC and Richard Wirtz, its founder and managing partner. Emails and phone messages seeking comment from Kirnos, Altman Group, Wirtz Law, Altman and Wirtz were not immediately returned Wednesday. Contact information for Becerra could not be located immediately Wednesday. Daniel J. Fetterman, a former federal prosecutor and partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres, said the firm's automaker client has been in contact with federal authorities. 'Ford reported this conduct to the United States Attorney's Office and has been cooperating with a grand jury subpoena served on it in the fall of 2021,' Fetterman said. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in L.A., declined to comment Wednesday. Sherman 'Tiger' Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Assn., said via email that the alleged fraudulent scheme 'is an affront to the civil justice system and these lawyers who have harmed consumers by needlessly dragging out and driving up costs of litigation should be held accountable.' Ford claimed in its filing that the scheme 'has an informal governing structure that at certain times operates as a command hierarchy,' meaning it had a chain of command. The arrangement, Ford alleged, violated the RICO Act, which has played a central role in cases against high-profile organizations including Italian crime families, Mexican drug cartels and the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Ford argues it is owed civil damages under the federal racketeering law. The automaker's lawsuit said the attorneys involved 'associated with one another in the Enterprise for the common purposes of preparing and filing fraudulent fee applications and billing records, negotiating fraudulent settlements, splitting inflated fees, and funneling fraud proceeds into attorney distributions and extravagant purchases.' Ford said the nine-figure damage total it is seeking would recoup what it lost in allegedly bogus payouts, along with thousands of hours investigating the alleged scheme and what the company described as the harm to its reputation it sustained as a result of representations the lawyers allegedly made in court and online about the amounts they recovered from the automaker. Kyla Christoffersen Powell, president and chief executive of the Civil Justice Assn. of California, said in an emailed statement that the alleged fraud scheme highlighted longstanding problems with the state's Lemon Law. 'The shocking attorney conduct outlined in today's filing by Ford underscores the need for the Legislature to consider additional reforms to the lemon law that remove perverse incentives for attorneys,' she wrote.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Ford accuses law firms of fraudulent overbilling, including a 57-1/2 hour workday
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Ford sued several California lawyers and law firms on Wednesday, accusing them of fraudulently inflating their legal fees under that state's Lemon Law, including one instance where a lawyer allegedly billed 57-1/2 hours in one day. In a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court against nine defendants, Ford called the alleged improper billings a "magical mystery tour" of bogus work and time entries, spread across thousands of cases against several automakers so they would go undetected. Ford said the law firm Knight Law Group anchored the scheme, regularly bringing in other law firms to overstaff cases, sometimes with 10 to 15 lawyers. The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker said it lost at least $100 million from the scheme over five years. It is seeking at least $300 million in damages for alleged violations of the federal anti-racketeering law known as RICO. Requests for comment on behalf of the defendants were not immediately returned. The complaint identified "numerous" alleged instances of lawyers billing more than 24 hours in a single day. Ford said the 57-1/2 hours that Knight partner Amy Morse allegedly billed on November 30, 2016 included 12.9 hours on "requests for admission," where parties ask opponents to admit that facts are true or documents are authentic. The automaker said another lawyer allegedly billed 29 hours to prepare for, travel to and attend two trials on the same day in Los Angeles and near San Francisco, about 400 miles apart. California's Lemon Law, the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, lets lawyers collect legal fees based on reasonably incurred time spent representing vehicle owners. The case is Ford Motor Co v Knight Law Group LLP et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 25-04550.
Globe and Mail
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Globe and Mail
Ford accuses law firms of fraudulent overbilling, including a 57-1/2 hour workday
Ford sued several California lawyers and law firms on Wednesday, accusing them of fraudulently inflating their legal fees under that state's Lemon Law, including one instance where a lawyer allegedly billed 57-1/2 hours in one day. In a complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court against nine defendants, Ford called the alleged improper billings a 'magical mystery tour' of bogus work and time entries, spread across thousands of cases against several auto makers so they would go undetected. Ford said the law firm Knight Law Group anchored the scheme, regularly bringing in other law firms to overstaff cases, sometimes with 10 to 15 lawyers. The Dearborn, Michigan-based auto maker said it lost at least $100 million from the scheme over five years. It is seeking at least $300 million in damages for alleged violations of the federal anti-racketeering law known as RICO. Requests for comment on behalf of the defendants were not immediately returned. The complaint identified 'numerous' alleged instances of lawyers billing more than 24 hours in a single day. Ford said the 57-1/2 hours that Knight partner Amy Morse allegedly billed on November 30, 2016 included 12.9 hours on 'requests for admission,' where parties ask opponents to admit that facts are true or documents are authentic. The auto maker said another lawyer allegedly billed 29 hours to prepare for, travel to and attend two trials on the same day in Los Angeles and near San Francisco, about 400 miles apart. California's Lemon Law, the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, lets lawyers collect legal fees based on reasonably incurred time spent representing vehicle owners. The case is Ford Motor Co v. Knight Law Group LLP et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 25-04550.
