Latest news with #Song-BeverlyConsumerWarrantyAct
Miami Herald
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Ford files shocking $300 million RICO lawsuit
Back in 1970, California passed the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act. The law protects California car buyers, and other consumer types, from buying faulty vehicles. The law ensures that every retail sale of consumer goods in the state is accompanied by certain implied warranties and limits retailers from voiding those warranties. Related: Elon Musk confirms Tesla's summer plans Song-Beverly is one of the strongest consumer protection laws in the country. Retailers sued under the law must reimburse litigation costs and attorneys' fees. So if you buy a car from Ford that is a lemon, the car manufacturer could be required to buy back or replace your vehicle if, after a "reasonable" number of repair attempts, no solution is found. As one might imagine, people looking to game the system can sometimes abuse such a strong consumer protection bill. The number of Lemon Law claims filed has soared in recent years. "These numbers are even more dramatic in California due to the Song-Beverly Act and its fee-shifting provisions (which creative plaintiffs' attorneys may use as leverage against manufacturers)," according to The auto industry, which comprises most of the Song-Beverly Act claims, faced nearly 15,000 warranty complaints in 2022 and even more in 2023. This week, Ford decided to fight back against this rising tide with a shocking lawsuit. On Friday, Ford filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against lemon-law firms and lawyers in California. Ford alleges that three law firms led by the Knight Law Group LLP and six affiliated attorneys and staff members violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, overbilling for legal fees by submitting court timesheets recording more than 24 hours worked in a single day. "Ford's civil RICO suit against a number of lawyers and law firms is a result of a comprehensive investigation that uncovered what's alleged to be a massive scheme to submit phantom invoices filled with 'ghost hours' for work that was never performed to deceive California judges, dupe their own clients and to defraud auto manufacturers, Doug Lampo, Ford counsel," said in a statement to The Detroit News. Ford says it has identified hundreds of cases in which at least $100 million of legal bills were fraudulently charged to manufacturers by lemon-law lawyers. Related: Shocking China news sends Detroit Big 3 shares roaring In one instance, one attorney billed as many as 57.5 hours on November 30 across multiple cases. That same lawyer billed more than 20 hours on at least 66 occasions. Ford also says The Knight Law Group routinely brought in other law firms and attorneys as co-counsel to handle trial work, often overstaffing cases with 10 to 15 lawyers. Ford is seeking at least $100 million in damages, but RICO statutes could triple those damages. Ford says these law firms are taking advantage of a law meant to protect consumers to fraudulently enrich themselves. "Defendants abused their positions of trust as members of the Bar to deceive the courts," said Daniel Saunders, the Ford attorney who filed the lawsuit. Ford says that at least half of the legal fee applications on behalf of vehicle buyers over the last decade were inflated. More Ford news Ford CEO Jim Farley has strong take on tariffs Ford makes a drastic decision in the face of tariff overhangFord CEO Jim Farley flags concerning behavior from new car buyers The lawsuit also suggests that Ford wasn't the only victim of this scheme. "Ford has identified hundreds of cases in which not less than $100 million of legal bills were unlawfully sought and collected," Saunders wrote, according to The Detroit News. "A review of fee claims in multiple cases takes one on a magical mystery tour of fictitious billings, including individual attorneys who supposedly worked more than 24 hours per day or simultaneously attended different trials or depositions in geographically distant jurisdictions." Related: Veteran fund manager unveils eye-popping S&P 500 forecast The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
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.
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. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
