— A Ford lawsuit against Lemon Law lawyers has been dismissed after the judge said she found no proof the lawyers and law companies worked together to overcharge Ford.
The crux of the lawsuit revolves around how lawyers who sued Ford billed Ford over California's vehicle 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 the billing rates were greatly inflated the past 10 years.
And the amount isn't exactly small. Ford argues at least 50% of the $100 million billed by the lawyers were inflated illegally.
Accused of violating the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, the Lemon Law lawyers were supposedly paid for work never performed and "phantom" time that totaled at least tens of millions of dollars.
According to Ford, the Lemon Law lawyers purportedly worked more than 24 hours in a day and attended court hearings in opposite ends of California at the same time.
Ford even told the judge one Lemon Law lawyer worked “an ostensibly heroic but physically impossible 57.5-hour workday in November 2016."
Ford Lemon Law Lawyer Lawsuit Dismissed
Although Ford's lawsuit was dismissed, the judge granted the automaker leave to modify and refile the lawsuit, if Ford chooses to do that.
According to Judge Michelle Williams Court, she refused to "turn an ordinary business relationship into a RICO enterprise," and under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine Ford couldn't proceed with its lawsuit.
Under that doctrine, the judge placed legal fee immunity at the top of her dismissal which protects the Lemon Law companies.
The judge ruled the evidence didn't show the Lemon Law lawyers conspired to illegally inflate their bills to Ford, preventing Ford's racketeering allegations from proceeding. The judge also had problems with sections of the lawsuit which mentioned subjects such as tax liens and prior convictions.
The judge called those allegations "immaterial."
The Ford Lemon Law fee lawsuit was filed in the U.S. 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.
