For many buyers, the concept of the Lemon Law is a good one: when a consumer purchases a product that repeatedly fails to meet generally expected quality standards, they are provided with a legal remedy to pursue a refund.
And while many automakers find themselves involved in Lemon Law cases, this next instance is a bit unique. For Ford Motor Company, instead of facing off in lawsuits over defective products, it is filing a suit against a group of Lemon Law attorneys alleging widespread fraud.
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Companies who are found in breach of Lemon Law are often on the hook for the legal fees of the customer, which means there are certain law firms that specialize in – and seek out – these specific types of consumer protection cases. In Ford’s instance, the automaker claims that a group of nine attorneys have been presenting them with inflated bills for Lemon Law-pursuing customers, to the tune of millions of dollars.
In fact, Ford’s claims go even further. A report in Carscoops says Ford has accused the law firms in question of working in tandem, which they say is tantamount to fraud in violation of the RICO Act – a federal law that targets corruption.
Ford’s suit outlines a “magical mystery tour of fictitious billings” including a breakdown of nonsensical hourly charges. For example, Ford says one single attorney in the case billed Ford more than 20 hours in a day on 66 occasions. 34 of these incidents were reportedly bills above 24 hours in a day and one cites a 57-and-a-half-hour workday.
Ford also says one attorney billed them for traveling to two different trials held on the same day. The problem was, they were held 380 miles apart.
Carscoops points to Ford’s lawsuit, which suggests that half of all the legal fee applications the automaker received were suspect. The company is not only seeking $300 million in damages, but it’s warning other automakers that they might be affected too.
For their part, the attorneys are emphatically denying the accusations. Knight Law Group called Ford’s legal action “nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to silence firms who would dare hold them responsible and seek justice for consumers.”
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