At this weekend’s Nevada Justice Association (NJA) Annual Convention in Chicago, numerous lien-based medical providers and lawsuit funders turned out to network and strengthen their business ties with the state’s most powerful personal injury lawyers. 

Some photos posted to NJA’s Instagram account show chiropractors, lien-based doctor networks, and lawsuit funders openly networking with NJA member attorneys, raising ethical considerations about the referral networks and conflicts of interest. 

The doctors who attend these conferences are not your typical primary care physician. Each of these businesses profits from Nevada’s lien system, a practice where doctors and funding firms delay billing until after a personal-injury lawsuit settles. This often leads to inflated medical charges, pressure to prolong litigation, and larger contingency-fee payouts for the trial lawyers they network with at events like this one.

By sponsoring the NJA convention, these lien providers ensure they remain closely tied to the state’s plaintiff bar, the same lawyers who refer clients to them and later use their inflated invoices as leverage in settlement negotiations. It is a closed ecosystem that leaves consumers paying the price, often stuck owing thousands in “medical” bills that bear little resemblance to market rates.

When bar associations and trial-lawyer groups blur the line between professional development and business referral marketing, consumers lose. Patients deserve transparent medical pricing and independent treatment decisions, not a system where every back adjustment or MRI is part of a litigation-driven business model to benefit the personal injury lawyers and their affiliated networks of chiropractors and lien providers.