— A Ford Lemon Law lawsuit is over and done after a federal judge ruled against Ford Motor and in favor of the Lemon Law lawyers who were sued for conspiracy.
The lawsuit was filed by Ford in 2025 against Knight Law Group (Steve B. Mikhov, Amy Morse, Roger Kirnos, Dorothy Becerra), The Altman Law Group (Bryan C. Altman), and Wirtz Law APC (Richard M. Wirtz).
Ford accused the Lemon Law lawyers of billing fraud and conspiracy in cases related to the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act in California.
But while Ford accused the law companies and lawyers of racketeering, those lawyers argued the lawsuit was only "retaliatory."
If an attorney wins a Lemon Law case against Ford, that lawyer is allowed to bill Ford for the work by submitting fee applications supported by timesheets and other billing records.
But Ford accused the Lemon Law lawyers of a huge racketeering billing scheme in place since at least 2015 that involved fake time records which amounted to more than $100 million in fraudulent billing to Ford.
Ford argues automakers and California courts are overwhelmed and didn't catch the billing errors. In 2023 alone, more than 22,500 Lemon Law lawsuits were filed against automakers in California.
Although Ford lost its lawsuit, evidence presented in court supported many of Ford's allegations, especially with keeping track of the time spent on lawsuits as the work was performed.
Members of Knight Law Group testified its lawyers frequently did not record time spent when the work was performed, but instead “oversaw a process by which the purported time entries . . . were generated by non-lawyer members of a dedicated Fee Motion Department after the fact—often years after the purported work in question—to support fee demands against Ford and other auto manufacturers.”
And Knight Law admitted it did not begin keeping contemporaneous time records until 2018.
Ford reviewed thousands of Knight Law Group’s billing invoices and time records between 2013 and 2024 and found evidence of false billing records.
According to court documents, Ms. Morse testified under oath since becoming a “supervising attorney” at Knight Law Group in 2016, she has "not propounded written discovery, drafted motions, or directly communicated with clients."
But Knight Law Group’s billing statements “include many hundreds of entries for Morse that purport to attribute her time for performing these very tasks during this period, including frequent entries for communicating with clients and opposing counsel and hundreds of entries claiming to have drafted written discovery and complaints.”
In addition, Ms. Howard said she reviewed attorney billing statements as recently as 2021 and that Ms. Morse prepared lawsuits and drafted discovery.
Ford also found some Lemon Law lawyers worked more than 24 billable hours in a day several times, and in other cases those attorneys also worked more than 20 billable hours in a day on several occasions. And Ms. Morse worked more than 24 hours in a day on 34 separate occasions.
"One of those days, November 30, 2016, shows Ms. Morse as having worked 57.5 hours, and another day, March 23, 2017, indicates that Ms. Morse worked 31.3 hours. Time entries also represent that Ms. Morse worked between 20 and 23.9 hours in a day 38 different times." — Court documents
Ford also presented evidence that between February and April 2017, Ms. Morse averaged 16.5 hours of work per day (including weekends). And Ford found that in 2016, Ms. Morse billed 3,106.45 hours and then billed 3,975.4 hours in 2017.
"Between 2016 and 2024, billing records show more than 4,600 distinct entries with the description 'Communicate with Client,' though Ms. Morse testified that she never billed or recorded time for client communications. Kristina Stephenson-Cheang, an associate with Knight Law Group, is shown to have worked more than 24 hours on seven different occasions." — Ford Lemon Law lawsuit
According to Ford, due to the allegedly clear evidence of fraudulent billing, and because the Lemon Law lawyers co-counseled on cases involving such billing, "then the parties must have co-counseled with the purpose of billing fraudulently.”
The federal judge rejected Ford's arguments by ruling the lawsuit fails to plead the Lemon Law companies came together for the common purpose of creating fake billing records.
The judge ruled Ford's allegations “lack an indication that the parties came together for the purpose of fraudulently inflating their billing, rather than having formed for the purpose of bringing Lemon Law cases but having utilized poor billing practices in doing so.”
The Ford Lemon Law 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.