Court Documents: NYC Says Manhattan Injury Firm Turned Hit-and-Runs and Fights Into Road Defect Claims

The city of New York has sued a small Manhattan personal injury firm, alleging it fabricated roadway injury claims to collect money from taxpayers. Reuters reported on October 6 that the city's federal racketeering complaint cites 15 allegedly fraudulent lawsuits brought by Asher & Associates and its attorneys. The firm dropped its cases without explanation after the city confronted it with "contradictory statements" in the lawsuits, according to New York's Law Department.

The complaint lays out the alleged scheme:

4. The Asher Defendants represent clients with bona fide personal injuries but caused by unknown or impecunious actors, or self-inflicted. To remedy the absence of an identifiable negligent actor, the Asher Defendants fabricate injury scenarios that falsely allege the City as culpable, and responsible for paying lucrative settlements or judgments.

It describes what happens between the emergency room and the courtroom:

8. But as illustrated by the fifteen (15) below-described cases, in moving from emergency room to courtroom the Asher Defendants' clients' narratives undergo a remarkable metamorphosis in which a punch in the jaw, a blow from a lead pipe, an opened car door, or an encounter with a hit and run driver is transformed into that "defective, cracked, misleveled, broken, warped, elevated, depressed, or uneven" roadway owned or controlled by the City.

Twelve of the fifteen notices of claim demanded $3 million from the city. The complaint says the firm's own hospital and police records describe a hit-and-run in one case, a lead pipe assault in another, and a skid on wet pavement in a third, with no mention of a road defect. The city alleges the firm knew the stories were false because it "is in possession of the medical records where the true narrative is presented."

The complaint also names the people who feed these cases into the system. It describes "runners" or people who recruit victims for the law firms:

193. Defendants John Doe 4-6 are so-called "runners" ("the John Doe Runners") who serve as personal injury brokers by locating persons with legally weak or non-compensable injuries and presenting them to attorneys willing to provide false narratives that serve to convert otherwise non-compensable claims into claims that could plausibly support a settlement or judgment at trial. The John Does Runners know that that the injury narratives in the cases they bring to the Asher Defendants falsely attribute liability to the City.

That matches what The New York Times reported about racketeering suits across the country:

"Racketeering lawsuits from insurance companies and others argue that many of the personal-injury plaintiffs are low-income, and some are recruited by 'runners' working for law firms. Often, the plaintiffs end up with only a fraction of any settlement, the lawsuits say."

New York City Corporation Counsel Steven Banks said the stakes go beyond one firm:

"Personal injury laws exist to protect actual victims of trauma, not to line the pockets of people looking to make a quick buck off City taxpayers."

The city says the 15 cases are "the tip of the proverbial iceberg", and it hopes to uncover other suits that "have cost taxpayers millions of dollars in fees, settlements and judgments based on false narratives."

The City of New York taking on this fraud is welcome news for consumers. Earlier this year, Governor Kathy Hochul signed comprehensive legislation into law cracking down on staged accidents.

Every dollar paid on a fabricated claim is a dollar taken from taxpayers. A dollar pulled from the bucket of money that can be used for city services people rely on. It's time for real accountability and transparency in the personal injury system. It's time to protect consumers.