California's most prolific "lemon law" lawyers, who've teamed up against auto manufacturers with thousands of lawsuits over the past decade, have turned against one another.
Knight Law Group filed suit against attorney Bryan Altman and Altman Law Group alleging they owe $2.4 million in loans and advances, $530,000 in unpaid rent and and interference with contractual relations. The suit also names "Does 1-20."
The lawsuit filed Dec. 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court also claims Altman sexually assaulted one of Knight's employees.
“It's bizarre,” Altman told the Southern California Record. “Certainly, any allegation of sexual assault is false.”
Altman and the Knight Law Group had worked in partnership since 2012 on lemon law cases alleging violations of the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act.
Enacted in 1970, the Song-Beverly Act, known as the state's lemon law, provides buyers with legal recourse related to warranted goods.
In total, tens of thousands of complaints have been filed against the auto industry in California claiming violation of Song-Beverly. Ford Motor Co. has been hit with the most lemon law suits with more than 9,000 since 2015.
The Knight Law Group and Altman represent many of those claimants.
“Knight became aware of allegations of sexual assault against Altman that were allegedly perpetrated by Altman against a Knight employee,” wrote Todd C. Theodora, attorney for the plaintiffs, in the complaint.
“Knight has incurred significant expense in seeking counsel to protect itself and to ascertain its further obligations vis-à-vis its own employees and the potential liability that Knight is being subjected to by virtue of Altman’s sexual assault allegation.”
Altman denied the allegations.
“The Knight Law has filed a complaint with a lot of what appears to be completely false allegations,” he said. “We will be asserting our own claims against them.”
Knight blames Altman for having to settle multiple cases as favorably as possible for clients while negotiating away hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees, costs and expenses that were incurred in those case.
Altman accuses Knight of trying to muddy the waters.
“We've been engaged in a dispute with the Knight Law Group over monies that are owed to us," Altman said. “We have had some differences in terms of what we believe are the best interests of the clients that we have both served and I think there are a number of differences in terms of what is right for the client and certain ethical differences that I think have now come to ahead.”
Among the relief sought by Knight is for a judicial determination and declaration that Altman Law is not entitled to recovery of attorneys’ fees related to its services as associated counsel for Knight’s clients due to Altman Law’s alleged violation of Rules 2-200 and Rule 1.5.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
“Our lawsuit will expose some of what we, in our opinion, believe are their sharp tactics, which we will be pursuing,” Altman added.