Victims Beware

The solicitation of accident victims by lawyers is illegal and subject to criminal prosecution. Accident victims are often solicited at accident scenes, hospitals or over the telephone. The people hired by doctors and lawyers to solicit the victims of accidents are known as “ambulance chasers” and/or “runners”. Runners often work with fraud rings. These rings include medical clinics that submit bogus health treatment and phony accident claims. In addition, runners sometimes “stage” accidents. The victims of these accidents go to medical clinics where thousands of dollars are fraudulently billed to insurance companies. All of these practices are illegal and can lead to the arrest and imprisonment of the doctors and lawyers involved. A criminal conviction can result in the lawyer or doctor losing their license. Moreover, the unsuspecting and innocent accident victims involved with them can become subject to mistaken police suspicion and wrongful arrest.

Runners are so sly that many times, accident victims do not realize that they have been tricked into going to a medical facility and/or a lawyer. When these dishonest doctors and lawyers are caught, the accident victim’s case can be destroyed. After all, who is going to believe them if their doctor and/or lawyer goes to jail? Moreover, the victims represented by these dishonest lawyers receive less settlement money. Medical facilities that pay runners to solicit victims have an added expense that honest facilities do not have. They pay runners upwards of $2000.00 for each accident victim they bring them. They get these costs back by referring the victim to one of “their” lawyers and stealing it back from the victim’s settlement monies at the end of the case.

Here’s how they do it.............

Lawyers that are connected to these clinics are motivated by greed alone. They do not owe their allegiance to the client. They owe it to the doctors who referred the client to them. Frequently, the victim’s medical bills are more than what the insurance company will pay for. In addition, sometimes medical facilities over bill their patients. Instead of trying to maximize their client’s share of the settlement proceeds, these lawyers first make sure that the referring doctor’s unpaid balance is paid out of the client’s settlement money.

The Law Offices of Michael S. Lamonsoff, PLLC does not owe anything to any medical facility for referring clients. Our clients come to us by referral only. We fight hard to negotiate any outstanding medical bill down so that our clients pay doctors as little as possible. Our loyalty is always to our client - the accident victim.

Use the links on the left to see examples of common solicitation scams

GENERAL RULE: ALWAYS CHOOSE A DOCTOR AND A LAWYER BY ENLISTING THE ADVICE OF PEOPLE THAT YOU KNOW AND TRUST.

If you or someone you know has been solicited by a runner and would like to consult with us, please feel free to call us anytime. We can replace these deceitful lawyers at any time at no cost to you. Regardless of how many attorneys have worked on an accident victim’s case, the victim will still get 2/3rds of the net award while the attorneys are left to fight over the 1/3rd attorney’s fee. The Law Offices of Michael S. Lamonsoff, PLLC stands ready willing and able to fire these “dirty” attorneys and competently litigate your case and aggressively pursue a successful and very prosperous award.

Remember, an injury victim will only have one change to be compensated for injuries that may last a lifetime. He or she should be represented by an attorney who is trustworthy, competent, aggressive, and has the victim’s best interests at heart.