– A Ford lawsuit against Lemon Law attorneys has been dismissed after the judge said she found no evidence that the attorneys and law firms colluded to overcharge Ford.
The core of the lawsuit revolves around how lawyers suing Ford billed Ford for the California car Lemon Law.
Ford claims there is a conspiracy between the Knight Law Group, the Altman Law Group and Wirtz Law regarding Lemon Law cases, with Ford alleging that billing rates have skyrocketed over the past decade.
And the amount is not exactly small. Ford claims that at least 50% of the $100 million billed by the lawyers was illegally inflated.
The Lemon Law attorneys were accused of violating the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and allegedly paid for work never performed and for “phantom” time totaling at least tens of millions of dollars.
According to Ford, Lemon Law attorneys allegedly worked more than 24 hours a day and attended court hearings in opposite parts of California at the same time.
Ford even told the judge that a Lemon Law attorney worked “a seemingly heroic but physically impossible 57.5-hour workday” in November 2016.
Ford Lemon Law attorney lawsuit dismissed
Although Ford’s lawsuit was dismissed, the judge allowed the automaker to amend and refile the lawsuit, if Ford chooses.
According to Judge Michelle Williams Court, she “refused to convert an ordinary business relationship into a RICO venture.” Noerr-Pennington Doctrine Ford was unable to proceed with the lawsuit.
Under that doctrine, the judge placed immunity from legal fees at the top of her dismissal, thus protecting the Lemon Law companies.
The judge ruled that the evidence did not show that Lemon Law’s attorneys conspired to illegally inflate their bills to Ford, ruling out Ford’s racketeering charges. The judge also took issue with parts of the lawsuit that mentioned topics such as tax liens and prior convictions.
The judge called those accusations ‘immaterial’.
The Ford Lemon Law lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California: Ford Motor Company v. Knight Law Group LLP, et. al.
Ford is represented by Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP.
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