Shady Lawyer Phil Lo And Alleged Car Scammers Defenders Northwest Fail To Thwart Free Speech

Meet disgraced insurance defense lawyer Philip H. Lo of Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani, LLP, a massive law firm that focuses on defending insurance companies and their clients.

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 G-Wagon 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 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 in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Instead of producing its customer’s restored Land Rover, the crooks provided a completely different vehicle which was non-operational, rusted-out junk. This is where Phil Lo and Gordon Rees come in trying to impose what’s called a protective order on the victims while being fully aware of the scam.

According to the customer, Chad Ullery, “it was a evil and clumsy attempt by Phil Lo to file a baseless motion with the court to prevent the true facts from reaching the crooked shop’s customer base and conceal its scam from the public.”

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, Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani, LLP. Sadly, insurance defense law firms often take advantage of the insurance companies; and the insurance companies take advantage of their clients.

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 Halls customer, 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 effort to make the litigation more costly and more profitable for his firm, 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 feed insurance defense law firms such as Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani, LLP.

Lo and his ilk dwell in the muck of insurance defense mediocrity. According to public filings, Lo unsuccessfully attempted to thwart First Amendment freedoms, arguing to the court that it should impose literally a gag order forbidding the posting of photos of the rusted out, disassembled frame and parts that accused scammers Brian and Michele Hall submitted for inspection. According to the plaintiffs, Lo falsely claimed that he and the Halls were presenting the court with the customers’ car which was restored and presented at a car show in Las Vegas several years ago.

Recognizing that a free and unfettered press is crucial for the health of our democracy, the courts should continue to denounce threats to press freedom and advance public policy efforts to strengthen the ability of journalists to expose scammers. Lawyers that aid crooked clients in concealing ongoing fraud or criminal activity are more than zealous advocates.  They become co-conspirators with their clients. 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 citizens, and hopefully prevents prospective customers from becoming victims of consumer scams.