Automotive Repair Coalition Applauds State Bar Action Against Attorneys Shaking Down Small Businesses

SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 13 -- Leaders of the Automotive Repair Coalition (ARC) expressed satisfaction today with the actions that the California State Bar Association announced against members of the Trevor Law Group in Los Angeles. The Trevor attorneys had filed complaints against thousands of California's hard-working automotive repair service dealers in 2002 that ARC has considered extortionate.

"The Trevor lawyers admitted at the recent January hearing by the Legislature's judiciary committees that they did no investigation of the shops they sued," noted Marty Keller, ARC Executive Director. "They just took listings off the state regulatory agency's web page and slapped them into their complaints. They were taking advantage of loopholes in the state's Unfair Competition Law to try to make some money off what they saw as defenseless small businesses."

Keller additionally noted that, although the State Bar's action is welcome, preventing the Trevor attorneys from further legal work still leaves the state's small businesses vulnerable to lawsuits like the ones filed against the auto repair dealerships. "We fear that the State Bar's action will just alert other attorneys to what they need to avoid when they file these kinds of frivolous lawsuits."

The Coalition's position is that the Unfair Competition Law needs to be reformed to prevent these kinds of lawsuits from being filed in the first place.

The Automotive Repair Coalition represents the state's automotive repair service dealers through its members and member trade associations.