By: Stuart Weingarden
How Lo can you go?
See the video here: https://storyxpress.co/video/lhybx1y4hjfq2ypy4
Americans more than others understand the value of free speech and freedom of the press. This is because we are a country of immigrants many of whom came here to escape dictatorship where repression reigns. Yet, some people amongst us are willing to trample on our constitutional rights to make extra money. This story is a familiar one; it involves a slimy lawyer by the name of Philip H. Lo of Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani, LLP, a huge law firm that focuses on charging insurance companies exorbitant amounts to defend the insured. In the case of Lo and Gordon Rees, the insurance company and the insured are strangely both clients despite having disparate interests.
Just last month, Lo attempted – and failed – to stifle free speech by demanding that a California court stop a victimized car collector from posting online photos of a Land Rover Defender. Defenders are classic Land Rovers known for ruggedness and a cultish following from Jeep and outdoor enthusiasts who often spend their savings rebuilding these little tractor-like, all-terrain trucks used in Safari adventures and James Bond films.
The photos in question were taken by experts when a court ordered a car inspection in a lawsuit for fraud and breach of contract filed against a car restoration shop.
Instead of producing its customer’s restored Land Rover Defender, the crooks provided a completely different vehicle which was non-operational, rusted-out junk. This is where Phil Lo and Gordon Rees came in trying to impose what’s called a protective order on the victims while being fully aware of their clients’ fraudulent scheme.
According to the customer, Chad Ullery, “it was an evil, ill-conceived attempt by Phil Lo to file a baseless motion to prevent the true facts from reaching the crooked shop’s customer base.” The Gordon Rees lawyer wanted to help his clients conceal their scam from the public but failed.
According to sources familiar with the underlying litigation, Phil Lo has been running up costs with poorly researched, wasteful motions and delay tactics designed to increase costs for the insurance company, Liberty Mutual, which is also a client of Lo’s law firm. Sadly, insurance defense law firms often take advantage of the insurance companies.
Phil Lo earned his law degree from Hastings College of the Law (renamed UC Law) and recently “earned” a California State Bar complaint and ethics investigation. Lo, a career obfuscator whose chosen path in life is to defend (or bilk) insurance companies, is defending the Gig Harbor, Washington car restoration shop named Defenders Northwest, LLC. According to Ullery, it is ironic that Defenders Northwest, which obsequiously showboated what it claimed was the victim’s car at the most prestigious automotive show in the world, SEMA, is attempting to prevent the car’s legal owners from posting photos of what was supposed to be the car’s court-ordered inspection, but turned out to be a farce.
Ullery called the inspection results “a theater of the grotesque,” and Bill Brown, the expert hired to inspect the car, testified that “the car was undrivable” and basically “made up of scrap parts”.
On Nov. 1, 2024, California Judge Deborah C. Servino ruled against Lo’s untimely motion for a protective order:
“Furthermore, Defendants have not made a factual showing that any information obtained during the vehicle inspection or discovery implicates any protectable interest or dissemination of any information to the public would result in injury,” she wrote. “They only have generally alluded to privacy rights and confidential commercial information, without specifying what privacy rights or the commercial information that is entitled to confidentiality. Defendants have not met their burden. Accordingly, the motion for protective order is denied.”
The alleged crooks Brian and Michele Hall are the owners of Defenders Northwest, LLC. According to legal documents filed with the court, Phil Lo is well aware of the results of the inspection and continues to mislead the court and the insurance company in an effort to charge more money. In an attempt to make the litigation more costly and more profitable for his firm, Phil Lo decided to try to shut down free speech but failed.
According to a Washington Tribune article, the car and the money are gone. In the meantime, court filings indicate that the crooked shop filed fake liens and insurance claims. Defenders Northwest, according to multiple lawsuits filed against it, appears to be in the business of stealing Defenders. Liberty Mutual and other corporate reptiles with deep Wall Street pockets and even deeper entrenched bureaucracies are easy pray for insurance defense law firms such as Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani, LLP.
There were over 200 photos and videos taken during the inspection of the imposter vehicle. These photos depict a rusted-out, partly disassembled frame and parts that accused scammers Brian and Michele Hall had the chutzpah to submit for inspection. According to the plaintiffs, Phil Lo falsely claimed that he and the Halls were presenting the court with the customers’ car which was the result of a $200,000 restoration project that lasted over 7 years and was exhibited as a star of a car show in Las Vegas several years ago. In reality, Lo and the Halls offered up a car that is not the one they were entrusted with and is not much of a car. Rather, the shameless scoundrels submitted junk for inspection and refused for Ullery to be present to view the car that he thought he had not seen for over 10 years.
Recognizing that a free and unfettered press is crucial for the health of our democracy, the courts should continue to denounce threats to free speech and press freedom and advance public policy that enables journalists to expose scammers. Lawyers that aid crooked clients in concealing ongoing fraud and criminal activity are more than zealous advocates. They become co-conspirators with their clients, as another lawyer and associate of Defenders Northwest (Shawn Harju) recently learned. And lawyers who in doing so attempt to trample on free speech are an embarrassment to their profession.
Free speech and sanctity of free press gives a vital voice to American citizens, and hopefully prevents Americans from becoming victims of consumer fraud.
