DA Praised For Civil Action Against Alleged 'Shakedown' Lawyers

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A lawsuit reform organization Monday heaped praise on Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin for initiating civil action against four attorneys and another man allegedly involved in dozens of harassment lawsuits against area businesses over supposed Americans with Disabilities Act violations.

"We applaud District Attorney Hestrin for efforts to correct a long overdue wrong -- abusive lawsuits filed against small businesses under the ADA," said Ken Barnes, director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, a San Diego- based nonprofit.

"These lawsuits are filed for the sole purpose of making money off the backs of hard-working small business owners, threatening the health of California's economy," Barnes said. "The thousands of cases filed to obtain quick settlements, known as shakedown lawsuits, show that loopholes in the law continue to attract a small band of lawyers willing to exploit the law for personal gain."

Last month, Hestrin announced a civil complaint against Craig Gerald Cote, 67, of Huntington Beach, Babak Hashemi, 40, of Newport Beach, Joseph Richard Manning, 50, of Newport Beach, Michael John Manning, 43, of Newport Beach, and James Rutherford, 66. All but Rutherford are attorneys.

The complaint alleges breaches of the Unfair Competition Law in Business, as well as false advertising under the California Business & Professions Code.

"The defendants specifically identified small businesses for the purpose of targeting them with fraudulent lawsuits," the D.A.'s office alleges. "The defendants made misrepresentations in the legal documents they filed with the courts in an effort to obtain monetary settlements from the businesses."

More than 100 "shakedown" legal actions were filed against individuals and businesses in Riverside County, according to prosecutors.

The defendants' attorney, David Darnell, rejected the county's allegations, telling City News Service last month that the complaint was "misguided and without any merit."

"There is nothing false about the ADA lawsuits," Darnell said. "Those corporations that were sued did violate the act, and they settled or tried to settle the cases."

According to the D.A.'s office, over the past few years, the defendants allegedly set out to find businesses throughout Southern California where ADA violations related to access for the disabled might exist.

Rutherford was the point man in most of the actions, serving as the party-plaintiff represented by the lawyers, prosecutors said.

According to the D.A.'s office, the defendant has been involved in more than 200 ADA civil actions filed in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.

"In the nearly 30 years since the enactment of the ADA in 1990, California has failed to shield thousands of vulnerable business owners from attacks by our state's self-appointed `private enforcers,"' Barnes said. "This is the epitome of lawsuit abuse. CALA is advocating for a system of balance and justice. Small business owners need to be made whole for the settlements they've had to pay for abusive ADA lawsuits. We also believe legislators must take swift action to protect those for which the spirit of ADA was intended, but also move swiftly to protect business owners from abuse."

A hearing on the county's lawsuit is set for June 24 at the Riverside Historic Courthouse.

— By City News Service