Illinois Lawyer Referrals and Legal Guidance

In a recent Fortune magazine article, doctors and personal injury attorneys and Vegas were profiled as turning routine injuries from car accidents in to surgical nightmares.  No one has been convicted, but there have been Federal criminal charges that alleged insurance companies were bilked out of millions of dollars and innocent victims were essentially tricked in to getting medical treatment that was unreasonable and not needed.

The gist of it is explained by a woman who had a minor fender bender.  She woke up with back pain the next day and went to her regular doctor.  He wouldn’t treat her without up front payment so she eventually got hooked up with a lawyer who recommended a doctor that agreed to work without payment as long as she agreed to a lien on her settlement.  In other words, when she got paid he’d get paid.  The story goes on to allege that many accident attorneys and doctors were part of a grand scheme where lawyers would funnel their clients to doctors, the doctors (typically high level surgeons) would perform un-needed procedures and would also testify in trials that the work of their colleagues was necessary. 

We’ve seen cases where Federal prosecutors have alleged things that aren’t true and where the media has reported something incorrectly.  In fact no one has been convicted in these cases and the only person to suffer any consequences was the doctor who agreed to testify in exchange for immunity.  He lost his medical license and has to do community service.  Vegas is Vegas, but could something this seedy really happen in Chicago?

The first reaction is of course, it’s Chicago.  There is nothing illegal about an attorney recommending a doctor for a client nor is there anything wrong with a physician putting a lien on a file and agreeing to get paid at a later date.  We’ve seen doctors do some shady things and Chicago personal injury attorneys do questionable things too.  But it’s a bigger stretch to suggest that they are working in cahoots to defraud insurance companies. 

The law firms in Cook County that routinely win seven figure cases sincerely have clients that have suffered catastrophic injuries like death, paralyzation, loss of a limb, brain damage etc.  We monitor their results and haven’t seen an instance of a low impact car crash causing a back surgery.

On the other hand, it would be naive to think that on a lot of smaller cases, doctors and attorneys haven’t worked together in the Chicago area to pad their pockets a bit.   About once a week we receive letters from chiropractors, pain management clinics, physical therapists and others that are hoping for a two way referral arrangement (we passed, thanks).  The attorneys that do accept these offers are probably settling cases for $20,000 or so.  Many are worth that, some are not.  Added up over time there is probably a lot of fraud going on.

But we don’t think that the accident law firms with the highest track record of success are conspiring with neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons at places like Loyola, Rush, Northwestern and University of Chicago to make things up.  We do imagine that there are a lot of dinners, golf outings, referrals and preferential treatment.  It’s probably in the gray area, but certainly not blatant fraud.

What do you think?  Are we on target?

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