Law Blog Shines Light on Lawyers Sued for Unethical Practices

At New York Personal Injury Law Blog, lawyer Eric Turkewitz again draws attention to lawyers who unethically seek clients using “runners”. His most recent blog on the subject focuses on several Florida law firms suing other firms for employing runners.

One Florida law blog describes how runners act as intermediaries for third parties seeking to get work from accident victims:

Most traffic accidents in Florida result in an accident report being filed with the local law enforcement agency. Individuals called “runners” contact the law enforcement agency to pick up copies of all accident reports filed with that agency. The “pickups” occur anywhere from a daily to a weekly basis, depending on how quickly the agency makes the reports available to the public. Most of the time the runners have made arrangements with the local agencies to have all reports copied and ready to be picked up. A typical law enforcement agency may have hundreds of records copied and stacked waiting for pickup from up to a dozen runners on any given day. Because accident reports are public records under Chapter 119, Florida Statutes, law enforcement agencies have no choice but to comply with the requests.

The runners subsequently use the reports to personally solicit accident victims or to turn a list of victims’ names over to a third party who will solicit. These solicitations generally take the form of either harassing or invasive telephone calls or intimidating personal visits to the insured’s home. Whether by telephone or in person, the solicitor generally misleads the victims into thinking they are speaking to their insurance company and that the visit to a doctor or chiropractic clinic is mandatory. The runner will often also refer victims to an auto body shop and a lawyer, all in return for kickbacks.

Eric Turkewitz pronounces the opinion of most lawyers when he writes in his post, “The concept of chasing cases has long been a stain on the [legal] profession. I know I am not alone in being upset to see our reputations tarnished by the less reputable. Whenever any member of a community acts inappropriately, it affects the reputations of others. Decent cops and priests know all about this concept when they see wayward others from their insular communities in the news in unflattering ways.”

When lawyers act unethically, it perpetuates and reinforces the stigma on the entire legal profession unethical lawyers have created. I previously wrote that ads rarely reflect reality, focusing on bad attorney ads that cast a pallor over the profession by using less-than-professional marketing tactics. Eric’s posts nicely articulate and expand upon the comments in my blog, and drive home the point that those lawyers who cant practice law within the bounds of ethics and professionalism shouldn’t be practicing law at all:

The message should be loud and clear: If you employ runners to chase cases at the local hospitals you shouldn’t be practicing law. And it should be equally clear that the vast, vast majority of attorneys look down with utter disdain on such conduct. Without question, most of the lawyers that I run into, on both the plaintiffs and defense side, practice law conscientiously and ethically. The corrupt ones should not expect others to come to their defense.