Ford Motor Co. accused five lemon law attorneys in Southern California of creating a massive racketeering enterprise to inflate their fees, including in two multidistrict litigation matters.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Ford alleged that lawyers at the Knight Law Group, the Altman Law Group, and Wirtz Law billed “phantom legal fees” and “hoodwinked all of the judges” in hundreds of lemon law cases for the past decade. The lawsuit, citing instances of mail and wire fraud supporting claims under the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, alleges that at least 50% of the $100 million billed by the defendant lawyers during that period was fraudulently inflated.