Georgia Personal Injury Lawyer Disbarred After Stealing Accident Data to Solicit Clients

William T. Payne, a Decatur personal injury and criminal defense lawyer, was disbarred Wednesday by the Georgia Supreme Court, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Last September, Payne entered a no-contest plea to a felony charge of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and was sentenced to one year of probation, 100 hours of community service, and $85,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors say Payne and his co-defendants illegally accessed the Georgia Electronic Accident Reporting System more than 30,000 times between January and August of 2015. They then used the stolen crash information to solicit personal injury clients and obtain settlements, according to reporting.

Behind each of those records is a person who had just been in an accident.

Payne's case is not isolated. He is one of 14 Georgia attorneys disbarred this year, and the AJC described illegal solicitation as "a statewide problem that the court is considering in a separate case."

Marietta personal injury attorney Darl Champion told the AJC that lawyers are rarely disciplined for it because the practice is generally unpoliced. The State Bar denies claims that it is unwilling to investigate.

When a consumer's first contact with a lawyer is built on stolen police data, the relationship starts with exploitation. The harm to consumers is real. Accident victims who are targeted this way are approached at their most vulnerable moment, because of records they never agreed to share, rather than because they asked for help.