Ford alleges $100m fraud scheme by California law firms over Lemon law fees

Ford Motor Co (F.N) has launched a sweeping legal battle, accusing several California law firms of a coordinated fraud scheme that allegedly cost the automaker over $100 million in five years. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court, claims the law firms grossly inflated legal bills under the state’s Lemon Law, including one astonishing claim of a 57.5-hour workday by a single lawyer.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based carmaker is seeking at least $300 million in damages under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), alleging that thousands of cases were padded with fake work logs and inflated legal hours that often went undetected.

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“This was a magical mystery tour of inflated billing and sham time entries,” Ford stated in its complaint, describing what it believes to be an elaborate system of billing abuse spanning multiple law offices.

At the heart of the allegations is Knight Law Group LLP, which Ford says spearheaded the scheme and frequently brought in 10 to 15 lawyers to overstaff simple cases, inflating the appearance of complexity and time demands. The automaker said this pattern was repeated across numerous claims filed under California’s Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, commonly known as the Lemon Law, which allows lawyers to recover reasonable legal fees when successfully representing consumers.

Among the most striking examples, Ford cited Amy Morse, a partner at Knight Law Group, who allegedly billed 57.5 hours on a single day, November 30, 2016. Of that, 12.9 hours were supposedly spent drafting “requests for admission,” a procedural element used in litigation.

In another case, a lawyer reportedly billed 29 hours for attending two separate trials on the same day, one in Los Angeles and another nearly 400 miles away in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ford said these instances are just “the tip of the iceberg,” claiming there are numerous other examples of attorneys billing over 24 hours in a single day.

The lawsuit, filed under case number 25-04550 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, names nine defendants. As of press time, requests for comment from the accused law firms had not been returned.

If proven, the case could reshape how Lemon Law litigation is monitored and raise questions about ethical billing practices across California’s legal landscape.