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THIS IS A RED ALERT ABOUT ATTORNEY VICTOR BLOCK AND THE BLOCK LAW GROUP.
Lawzilla has not seen so many sanctions orders, in such a short period of time, against an attorney and his clients, as have been seen with attorney Victor Block.
We do not review every case order, only a few, and it is rare to see an attorney come up more than once. Here we have an incredible five sanctions orders in less than two months. Each involving the same attorney (Victor Block / Block Law Group) and each involving the Ford Motor Company.
In our opinion something is wrong.
Note that when sanctions are issued the defendant (Ford) initially decides who to seek sanctions against. It could be the plaintiff or both the plaintiff and the attorney.
Then the judge decides if sanctions are warranted.
There may be times where the sanctions order simply says a plaintiff is being sanctioned, even though attorney negligence is also involved.
Note: Most of these orders involve tentative rulings and not final orders which may not impose sanctions or impose different amounts. Regardless of the amount, this attorney is the subject of a lot of sanctions motions.
Update: The State Bar has recommended that Victor Block be suspended from the practice of law.
THOMAS MARKLE vs. FORD MOTOR COMPANY
Victor Block and his Block Law Group represents two plaintiffs in a case against Ford Motor Company. The claims involve violations of the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act and the Manguson-Moss Act.
Ford served discovery on the Block Group's clients consisting of requests for admissions, requests for documents, and written questions to be answered.
No objections to the discovery were made by the Block law firm.
No requests for an extension of time to answer the discovery were made by Victor Block.
No responses to the discovery were forthcoming from the Block Law Group.
Ford's attorney send a letter about the discovery. There was no response from the Block firm.
Finally, Ford made motions to compel and sought sanctions.
No opposition was filed by the Block attorney.
The judge then sanctioned attorney Victor Block's clients $1380.
Worse, the judge ruled all the requests for admissions were granted. Assuming the discovery was halfway decent, this likely severely damages plaintiff's claims. The ruling could effectively end the lawsuit in Ford's favor.
DANE LEWIS vs. FORD MOTOR COMPANY
On the same day Thomas Markle in the prior ruling above was getting sanctioned, another one of attorney Victor Block's clients, Dane Lewis, was in court getting similar treatment.
This is also a case against Ford Motor Company.
Ford served discovery on the Block Group's client consisting of requests for admissions, requests for documents, and written questions to be answered.
No objections to the discovery were made by the Block law firm.
No requests for an extension of time to answer the discovery were made by Victor Block.
No responses to the discovery were forthcoming from the Block Law Group.
Finally, Ford made motions to compel and sought sanctions.
Victor Block did file an opposition to the motions. Unfortunately, the opposition was late and filed right before the hearing.
The judge then sanctioned attorney Block's client $1860.
LEANN SMITH VS FORD MOTOR COMPANY
Just a week before the above victims err clients of Victor Block were getting sanctioned, Leann Smith had her case in court against Ford for lemon law violations.
The scenario will be familiar:
Ford served discovery on the Block Group's client consisting of requests for admissions, requests for documents, and written questions to be answered.
No objections to the discovery were made by the Block law firm.
No requests for an extension of time to answer the discovery were made by Victor Block.
No responses to the discovery were forthcoming from the Block Law Group.
Finally, Ford made motions to compel and sought sanctions.
The judge then sanctioned attorney Victor Block's client $1500.
Worse, the judge ruled all the requests for admissions were granted. Assuming the discovery was halfway decent, this likely severely damages plaintiff's claims. The ruling could effectively end the lawsuit in Ford's favor.
This time the court made clear the sanctions order was also against Victor Block / The Block Law Group.
Block was specifically sanctioned $1500 in the tentative order.
Lawzilla Update: Lawzilla is informed a final order did not award any sanctions.
PHILLIP ROMERO VS FORD MOTOR COMPANY
The month before, Phillip Romero was represented by Victor Block and the Block Law Group in a claim against Ford Motor Company.
Ford served discovery on the Block Group's client consisting of requests for admissions, requests for documents, and written questions to be answered.
No responses were made.
The judge sanctioned Victor Block's client $1880.
The court also deemed admitted all of the requests for admissions served by Ford.
Tasha Donahue vs. Ford Motor Company
A couple weeks before, Tasha Donahue was unfortunately represented by Victor Block in her claim against Ford.
Ford served discovery on the Block Group's client consisting of requests for admissions, requests for documents, and written questions to be answered.
No objections to the discovery were made by the Block law firm.
No requests for an extension of time to answer the discovery were made by Victor Block.
No responses to the discovery were forthcoming from the Block Law Group.
Finally, Ford made motions to compel and sought sanctions.
No opposition to the motions was filed.
The judge sanctioned Victor Block's client $1380.
On January 17, 2019, the California State Bar recommended that attorney Victor Block be suspended from the practice of law for misconduct in numerous cases. It appears Victor Block used to be Ford's attorney, then sued Ford in similar cases, and judges issued orders finding this was improper.
Would you hire Victor Block to be your attorney?
From what we have seen, Mr. Block may be the last attorney we would want handling a case against Ford.
It is not known what he is doing to get so many clients against Ford, but many of his clients are getting hammered with thousands of monetary sanctions and probably losing their cases due to discovery orders imposing admissions against them.
We imagine the Ford attorneys may be high-fiving themselves every time they see attorney Block's name appear on a complaint.
Why not? It seems to be open-season to serve discovery, wait for it not to be answered, then hammer the plaintiff with sanctions motions. It is happening over and over.
It is possible Victor Block is doing a great job on a thousand other cases and hitting Ford with damages, and these are outliers. But that seems very, very unlikely based on what we are reading in the judge's orders.
Per our calculations, albeit primarily based on tentative rulings and not final orders, we have found $6500 in sanctions so far intended to be issued against Victor Block and/or his clients. This is bad - even if final orders reduce the final amount.
Victor Block was admitted to the California Bar in 1999. Bar Number 205096.
Block Law Group
1100 South Coast Highway Suite 314
Laguna Beach, California 92651
Law School: Howard University