Ambulance chasing thrives

(article written for the San Antonio Express News, By John MacCormack)

Alex Garza said the bombardment of urgent phone calls and unannounced home visits began shortly after he was rear-ended in a minor wreck on South Brazos Street in January.

“They were very pushy. They called my mom's cell phone. They would go to my mom's house, too,” he said.

One caller, who Garza said claimed to be from “the insurance company,” finally convinced him to go to a West Side chiropractic clinic for “free treatment.”

When he arrived, Garza said, he was met by a man named Ricardo who tried to persuade him to hire a specific law firm.

“I said, ‘I don't want a lawyer.' He was very persistent. I didn't sign the papers on the first day,” Garza recalled.

Eventually, Garza agreed to retain the law firm of Begum & Tijerina and to be treated at the San Antonio Spine and Rehabilitation Clinic on Fredericksburg Road for his neck injury.

He also accepted a rental car at the law firm's insistence, even though he said he didn't need it.

He said both he and the other driver had auto insurance, but despite this Garza still is waiting for relief.

Ten months after his wreck, his neck still is sore, he's out the $1,700 for fixing his own car and the car rental company is hounding him over a $2,000 bill.

“What they are doing is wrong. They don't work for these insurance companies. They're just out there hustling people. They're keeping all your money,” Garza said of the solicitors.

When the Begum firm offered him $800 as his cut of the insurance settlement, he said he went looking for another lawyer.

On Sept. 9, Garza filed a lawsuit in Bexar County asking the court to invalidate the clinic's medical bills and instead give the money to him. The suit claims Garza was tricked or pressured into signing various documents.

If it goes to trial, the case may shed light on a shadowy intersection of law and medicine in which state barratry laws are sidestepped, and unwary wreck victims are recruited with high-pressure sales tactics and often financially exploited.

Although lawyers aren't allowed to solicit clients, until a recent change in state law, chiropractors were free to do so, leading to an awkward but profitable partnership that many regard as unethical, if not illegal.

“Those lawyers are termites. The guys who deal with chiropractors are truly the low end of the food chain, and that's being polite,” San Antonio lawyer Tim Maloney said.

“Most of the (wreck victims) don't have a clue how the system works. You get them on the phone. Offer them a free rental car and free treatment, and of course they will be seduced by it,” he said.

According to the Garza suit, this particular variety of “case running” is highly lucrative.

“Defendant funnels hundreds of cases to defendant's practice and certain law firms which results in millions of dollars in revenue each year based on improper and fraudulent representations made by marketers who use promises of free medical care, free rental cars, free car repairs and recovery of damages,” the suit claims.

San Antonio Spine and Rehabilitation Clinic owner John Raimundo declined to comment.

His lawyer, Larry Laurent, said: “It's my understanding the suit is being resolved. I can't say if Mr. Garza is right or wrong. Other than that, I can't really comment.”

'Empty promises'

The Begum law firm avoided being named in the lawsuit by dropping its claim for its share of the insurance settlement before the suit was filed.

Contacted last week, Andrew Begum disputed most of Garza's claims, saying he was a difficult client who knew what he was doing, got good representation and a fair final settlement offer of more than $3,000 out of the $25,000 policy limit award.

Begum said he doesn't know anyone named Ricardo, doesn't use case runners and has no idea how Garza even found his firm.

“I had nothing to do with the solicitation. I can't control who calls my office with a client who wants legal services,” he said.

He said he barely knows clinic owner Raimundo, having met him only a couple of times.

“There is no formal arrangement,” he said, adding that Raimundo refers clients who need more than chiropractic medical care and also need legal representation.

Another San Antonio wreck victim described almost identical experiences of being solicited for treatment at Raimundo's clinic and, after arriving for treatment, being immediately referred to a Begum representative.

Melchor Salazar, 35, who was hurt in July, kept the business cards — including Begum's — he said were handed to him by solicitor Ricardo Melgarejo, who, Salazar said, arranged both the clinic appointment and legal representation by Begum.

“Ricardo told me they'd fix my back, get me $25,000 or more and, if I ever needed money, the lawyer would lend it to me,” said Salazar, who, like Garza, found the promises to be empty.

Melgarejo, identified as president of “S.A. Medical Consultants,” didn't return calls made to his cell phone Friday inquiring about his business practices and his relationships with Begum or Raimundo.

Begum said the suit is a hypocritical low blow by a disgruntled competitor, San Antonio lawyer Jamie Shaw, who filed it.

“This is just someone who is out to defame me, slander us and engage in anti-competitive practices for his own gain,” Begum said.

For years, he charged, Shaw profited from the same unsavory practices he now is denouncing. Begum produced statements made last week from three solicitors who claim Shaw regularly paid cash for referrals.

“It's a lie. I don't pay for cases and I never have, and it's not like I got religion lately,” Shaw said.

Barratry flourishing

Barratry, as improper solicitation is technically known, long has been illegal for lawyers, who are prohibited from contacting prospective clients, directly or indirectly, to win their business. Despite this, the practice flourishes in South Texas.

“The problem is fairly pervasive and it really gives a black eye to the entire profession,” said San Antonio lawyer Wyatt Wright, whose organization “Society of Ethical Attorneys at Law,” has a standing $25,000 reward for anyone who can make a barratry case stick.

“There are people who beat on their doors, come to their hospital rooms, who fill the role of ambulance chasers, trying to get these folks to sign up so they can flip the case to someone who will settle it quickly for less than the client may deserve,” he said.

In Corpus Christi, lawyer Bill Edwards is making waves by aggressively suing other lawyers over barratry claims.

Until recently, decades of attempts to impose similar limits on Texas chiropractors have failed.

Before Sept. 1, when the new law took effect, chiropractors were free to contact prospective clients and even to use telemarketers to track down accident victims based on information in police reports.

Despite an ongoing legal battle by San Antonio to limit access to accident information, each morning, customers show up regularly at the police station to buy reports that allow them to identify accident victims.

Among the 14 regular customers are national insurance and data base companies, and others, including Melgarejo's company, S.A. Medical Consultants, for whom the information means quick cash.

Until late August, copies of police reports reprinted on red paper were being sold each morning out of a downtown print shop to telemarketers and case runners. The sales on Martin Street ended after the new law took effect Sept. 1.

San Antonio telemarketers use various ruses to gain the confidence of wreck victims, claiming to represent insurance companies, LULAC and even the United Way. Others come knocking on front doors with beer, barbecue and H-E-B gift certificates in hand.

When it comes to curbing improper or aggressive solicitation, the Chiropractic Examiners Board in Austin is little more than a toothless watchdog.

“We've gotten 35 to 40 complaints in the last three years, but during that time, we haven't prosecuted any cases based on these complaints,” director Glenn Parker said.

“We don't go out in the field and investigate most of the time. If you were doing it, there was little likelihood of getting caught or repercussions,” he admitted.

Some chiropractors resist the temptation to work with solicitors and telemarketers, and also refuse to buy wreck information, among them Mark Miller, owner of Miller Chiropractic and Rehab in San Antonio.

“I've been approached by at least three law firms in recent years, offering their people to work with, their solicitors,” he said.

“The way it works is the doctor pays the solicitor, the lawyer signs people up, and the lawyer pays a referral fee to the doctor of up to $500 or $600. They called it ‘an upfront payment toward future medical bills' and it protects the lawyer from any issues,” he said.

Miller said he passed, even though it would have increased his business volume.

“It's not illegal. It's unethical. And I don't want to be involved with a patient coming to me based on what some solicitor says. You can't control that,” he said.

Dr. Thimios Partalas, another local chiropractor who was actively behind the recently passed anti-barratry law, said the reform, while long overdue, may not prove to be lasting.

“This was a lucrative business. Attorneys weren't allowed to solicit, but chiropractors were, so they kind of had a back door,” he said.

“I give them six months to a year to find a new way to get to the patients. The bottom line is getting to the victim,” he said.

'One-stop shop'

It may come sooner if a legal challenge to the law succeeds.

On Friday, a federal judge in Austin will hear arguments to overturn the new law.

The suit claims the law makes wreck victims vulnerable to low-ball offers by insurance companies, violates the chiropractor's right to free speech and is unreasonably vague.

Attorney General Greg Abbott is defending the law.

Last year, industry giant Allstate Insurance Group took matters into its own hands, filing a $10 million lawsuit in federal court in Dallas against the alleged king of improper solicitation, chiropractor Michael Plambeck of Arlington, and 65 other defendants.

The suit outlines a fraudulent multistate racket based on collusion between numerous chiropractors and lawyers, including some in South Texas.

The defendants, who deny the claims, accuse Allstate of attacking them as part of a corporate drive to reduce settlements and increase profits. The case may go to trial next year in Dallas.

San Antonio lawyer Maloney said that even if the new barratry law is upheld, improper solicitation will continue in one form or another.

“I guarantee that if you pick up a police report of someone who has been in a wreck since Sept. 1, they will have been contacted by 12 to 15 people. But now the guise is different,” he said.

“Instead of posing as insurance companies, now they are saying we work for a body shop and we heard your car was in an accident and by the way do you need medical care. All they did was twist their spiel.”

By early October, peculiar business cards already were circulating around town.

One new company, “Texas Auto Work Injury Services,” offers itself as a one-stop shop for wreck victims. The services listed on its bilingual card include “medical and legal information, physical therapy, body shop, car rental, medical doctor, chiropractor and orthopedic surgeon.”

The phone number, however, was temporarily out of service.

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