A case like many others – a plaintiff left with nothing but debts after being thrown in the personal injury system.
A significant personal injury law firm, which has been the defendant in several recent RICO suits in New York, has repeatedly victimized consumers. Court documents reveal that a Spanish speaking plaintiff hired this firm after suffering an accident on a construction site in December 2012. The plaintiff was drawn in by advertisements and the success this firm claimed on its website. He was brought to the firm by a “runner” who “recommended them to represent me in the accident.” They signed the retainer agreement and were told “that he [the runner] received several thousand dollars from [the firm] for bringing them the case, which he promised to share but never did.” The increased prevalence of “runners” is commonplace in personal injury lawsuits, where firms pay people money to solicit, procure or attempt to procure a client or possible victim at the direction or request of a lawyer whose purpose is to make a fee.
The legal documents required the client “to pay $100,000 out of any money received from [their] case,” but that was only the start of their issues.
In the course of his case, the law firm introduced the plaintiff to a third party litigation financing firm. According to the plaintiff’s testimony, “The law firm introduced me to a legal funding company who they said would lend me money against my case.”
“Over the course of more than 2 years, I signed numerous agreements, first with one company and then with another. Sometimes, I received money from the companies which I needed to live, since I was unable to work, and other times, I was told by the firm that they needed me sign agreements to take out money to pay for things in connection with my case, although they never told me exactly what the money was for. Each time, I did what they said and signed whatever they told me to sign because I trusted them. I didn’t know or really consider that I was borrowing the money at such a high interest rate because the law firm always assured me that my case was worth at least $4 million dollars. I never expected though that I would end up owing over $5 million dollars to the companies.”
In sum, the client ended up owing $5,582,444.47 to litigation funding companies–far greater than his possible payout.
The law firm also directed the client to the same litigation financing firms to “pay for medical treatment that I never received but paid for,” which they said “wasted two years of my time.” The law firm’s client found he was charged various bills for treatment he had not received, from medical firms he was not aware of.
If that was not enough, the insurance company “filed for bankruptcy which further delayed my case and increased the amount of interest I owed to the legal funding company. … Since I have been in need of money, I had to take out even more loans or borrow from friends to pay my bills.”
Ultimately, the client was left with nothing, and their case was disposed of, leaving them to pay back the litigation financing firm.
This is a common practice seen time and time again. Clients see billboards and commercials touting a firm’s success, choosing to hire the same attorneys thinking they will help make them whole. Clients trust their lawyers. They sign documents thinking the law firms are working in their best interest, but unfortunately, that is not always the case.