Attorney General Asks Probe of ‘Extortionist’ Legal Tactics

Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer has requested that the State Bar of California investigate two Beverly Hills attorneys who have sued thousands of auto repair shops, restaurants and other small businesses, likening the attorneys’ tactics to extortion.

Lawyers at the Trevor Law Group in Beverly Hills have riled the state’s automotive repair industry by filing 2,000 suits against garage owners, accusing them of unfair business practices. The automotive industry says the lawsuits are frivolous and intended to shake down business owners for quick cash settlements.

More recently, the attorneys have sued hundreds of Los Angeles-area restaurants on behalf of a charity for the blind, even though the group’s president disavows the legal action.

The attorney general is “concerned about the way these guys operate in terms of how they pursue these lawsuits,” said Tom Dresslar, a Lockyer spokesman. “Some of their tactics appear to be extortionist.”

Dresslar said it was uncommon for the attorney general to urge such an investigation.

A spokeswoman for the State Bar would not say whether the group has begun an investigation. But a source close to the matter confirmed that a bar investigator has been assigned to the case.

Lawyers Damian Trevor and Allan Hendrickson, of the Trevor Law Group, declined to comment Monday. In past interviews, the lawyers insisted they filed the cases on behalf of the public in order to protect consumers from unscrupulous garage owners.

The suits accuse garage owners of a variety of unfair business practices, from failing to file government forms to passing off used parts as new. The cases aren’t tied to specific defendants but rather are based on citations the state filed against the mechanics.

The firm has used a similar approach in lawsuits filed against restaurants, citing health code violations issued by the county. The restaurant suits were filed on behalf of Helping Hands for the Blind, also claiming unfair business practices.

But Robert Acosta, president of the Chatsworth-based nonprofit group, said the law firm misled him.

He said Hendrickson approached him several weeks ago about filing suits against companies to “make life better for the blind,” said Acosta.

“Then we went on vacation; we didn’t know anything about suing the restaurant industry,” Acosta said. “I was thinking of major chains, not small businesses. We were trying to get them to add maybe one Braille menu.”

Acosta said he returned from vacation and was bombarded with calls about the suits. He said he contacted Trevor and demanded that they be withdrawn.

The suits against the restaurants and the auto repair shops are filed under the state’s Unfair Competition Act and allege that the defendants are guilty of “harming the general public.”

The act allows plaintiffs to file civil suits even if they have not been directly harmed.

After being sued, some auto-repair firms said they received calls or letters from the law group urging owners to settle the cases quickly. Garage owners say that the Trevor Law Group created its own organization, Santa Ana-based Consumer Enforcement Watch, to act as the plaintiff in the garage suits.

Dresslar, of the attorney general’s office, declined to cite examples of unprofessional conduct or incompetence on the part of the Trevor Law Group. He did express concern that the situation could fuel efforts to dismantle the Unfair Competition Act, which he said is most often used by consumer groups to target abuses by large companies.

“We have to try to pin down what the abuses are,” Dresslar said. “And once we do, then we can talk about solutions that are balanced, that target the bad actors without reducing the important consumer protections afforded by the statute,” he said.

Some small-business groups have talked about seeking legislation that would weaken the Unfair Competition Act.

The State Bar would not say what discipline it might hand out. The actions could range from a warning to a disbarment if wrongdoing is found.