Auto shops call lawsuits a scare tactic - say they’re the victims of “legal shakedowns”

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Automobile repair shops in Los Angeles and Orange counties say they’re the target of an ongoing extortion campaign launched by a Beverly Hills law firm.

In recent weeks, according to court papers, lawyers at Trevor Law Group LLC have filed lawsuits in Los Angeles naming about 1,400 shops for violations ranging from not having valid business licenses to failing to give customers proper paperwork.

Proprietors later receive offers from the firm to agree to fast $500 to $2,000 out-of-court settlements, they said. Hundreds of other repair shops have also been sued in Orange County.

The firm allegedly uses a state-run database that tracks consumer complaints to find shops that have had complaints lodged against them, according to an industry trade group.

Joseph Ngo, who bought Advanced Auto Repair and Smog on South Prairie Avenue in Hawthorne in 1998, was hit a few weeks ago with a roughly 300-page lawsuit, reportedly for operating without a license.

“They said if you don’t want any trouble, pay $2,000 and you’re off the hook,” said Ngo, a recent El Camino College graduate now attending UCLA on a scholarship.

“We’re licensed, we’re honest and we do legal work,” he said. “These people are saying something that’s groundless. They’re extorting money.”

Other shop owners and industry professionals contend the firm is practicing “legal shakedowns” of small business owners too uninformed or frightened to fight.

“These profiteers are twisting and abusing good consumer protection laws to extort money,” said Marty Keller, director at the Automotive Repair Coalition, a trade group. A California law on the books since the Great Depression — long before the state had well-funded investigator and consumer protection advocates — allows private plaintiffs to sue on behalf of the public.

Trevor Law Group is suing on behalf of a plaintiff company called Consumer Enforcement Watch Corp. Shane Han, an attorney at Trevor, denied the extortion allegations.

“They can feel however they wish,” said Han, who was admitted to the bar just four months ago. “It doesn’t change the fact that they broke the law and are now involved in a lawsuit.”

David Wood, whose 16 Minute Smog shop on Inglewood Avenue in Hawthorne is among several stores he owns, was named in the lawsuit for having an expired business license at a West Los Angeles shop sold more than a year and a half ago.

Wood, a Redondo Beach resident, thought the lawsuit was a mix-up until he called Han.

“He said if I paid now it’d be in the low thousands but if I rode this out and fought he’d win and get legal fees and it would be more,” he said.

Wood and 20 other companies banded together, hired an attorney and are fighting the suits.

The consumer complaints reportedly used by the firm are listed on the Web site at the Bureau of Automotive Repair, part of the state Department of Consumer Affairs. The bureau registers and regulates approximately 34,000 California automotive repair facilities, and licenses smog check, lamp and brake inspection stations.

The database exists so customers can make informed decisions, not as a tool for lawyers looking to sue, say industry professionals. They have complained to the Bureau of Automotive Repair, the state Bar Association and the Attorney General’s Office, where, a few months ago, they had a face-to-face meeting with Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Trade professionals have no idea whether Lockyer or anyone else will intervene. And neither do state officials.

“We’ll take appropriate action if we get letters,” said Holly Jordan, a spokesman with the state’s top law enforcement office. “We’re monitoring these cases,” said Glenn Mason, a spokesman with the state Office of Consumer Affairs. “This is now a consumer case between the automobile repair shops and the attorneys.”

Han said the automotive repair industry has only itself to blame because of its tolerance for bad business practices.

“The auto repair industry has significant instances of fraud, misrepresentation, customers being ripped off and feeling unsatisfied,” he said. “This happens so often it’s common conversation among people.”

Han said the firm intends to give former repair shop customers a share of the settlements.

But that might prove difficult since the complaints listed on the state’s Web site are anonymous.

“They couldn’t know who (the consumers) are unless there was action that ended up in court,” said Keller of the Automotive Repair Coalition.

So far, an estimated 20 companies have settled their cases and signed a contract promising they’d remain violation-free for at least four years, said Will Woods of the Automotive Trade Organization, a trade group for gasoline retailers and automotive repair shop owners.

In Orange County, a shop owner fighting the lawsuit is also monitoring other cases. She said some are heartbreaking. The woman, who didn’t want her name used, said one man is in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease and didn’t want to die and leave his minister wife embroiled in a lawsuit. Another man is a cash-strapped widower raising a 12-year-old daughter alone, and a third person has an adult daughter struggling with leukemia, she said.

Woods fears those settlements might do more harm than good. Consumer complaints are largely out of a business owners’ control, and should someone file one, anyone who has settled could be sued again by the firm, he said.

Furthermore, Woods said he’s offended by the firm’s stereotypical comments about his industry.

“They keep saying all repair shop owners are criminals, so I guess we can make the same assumption about lawyers.”

So where is the California Attorney General or the Governor on this folks?

...to see what bad, bad things Davis has done... - CLICK HERE

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This is standard practice w/ a lot of "law" firms. They are well aware that a lot of businesses will just pony up the cash and be done with it. Welfare for lawyers. While I don't have anything personal against them, it should come as no surprise that they are probably the most hated occupation around.

Typical ambulance chaser crap. More of the Clinton trial lawyer crowd. They went after the tobacco companies and are now going after food companies for making us all fatties by forcing us to devour big macs. I can see the trial lawyers getting their calculators out as we speak, salivating over who exactly they will sue over the Beltway Sniper. The sharks must be thinking, what a bonanza of extortion victims; Firearms mfg, law enforcement agencies, government, oil companies, Home Depot, GM trucks, Ammo mfg and on and on.

I hope this con artist has his Double Breasted Kevlar Suit on order. He is dealing with a group here that quickly fells over whelmed.

We have one of these slickers bringing suits against small business for nocompliance of the ADA. He also uses a shill for the action.You can settle with for $20,000.

I heard direct TV is using the same tactic against consumers. They are forcing people to buy their service (with premium channels) plus a few thousand dollars. All so they won't sue them or something like that. A friend was explaining it to me, but I wasn't paying that much attention as I was in a discussion about ambulance chasing lawyers and not DSS TV.

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