Personal Injury Law Firm Members Indicted in Fraud

The senior partner and seven other representatives of one of the nation’s largest law firms specializing in personal injury cases were charged in a federal indictment Thursday with fabricating claims, finding phony witnesses, paying off court personnel and routinely falsifying evidence.

In one case, the indictment charged, one of the firm’s employees pretended he was hurt after he tripped on a pothole while getting out of a car in a race track parking lot. One of the firm’s investigators later went to the parking lot, found a suitable pothole and made it bigger with a pick ax before photographing the cavity to strengthen the false claim against New York’s Aqueduct Raceway.

In another case, the court papers alleged, a witness about to be called to testify was bribed with plane fare to Peru not to appear.

Named in the indictment was Morris J. Eisen, the sole shareholder and principal lawyer of the law firm, Morris J. Eisen, P.C., along with two of the firm’s other lawyers, four of its private investigators and the firm’s former office manager.

The New York firm, which employs other lawyers and was not named as a defendant in the case, specializes in representing plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits. Prosecutors said until recently it was one of the largest personal injury law firms in the country, with several hundred cases pending at one time in federal and state courts. In 1986 alone, the firm grossed about $20 million in contingency fees and employed over 40 lawyers.

The indictment cited 19 personal injury lawsuits brought by the Eisen firm in which the defendants allegedly engaged in fraudulent conduct to win awards for clients--and substantial contingency fees.

The indictment, brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, charged the defendants with falsifying physical evidence, creating fraudulent documents, photographs and medical reports, bribing state court personnel, tampering with jurors and retaining expert witnesses to give fraudulent opinions and reports.

U.S. Atty. Andrew J. Maloney charged that Eisen firm employees falsely certified that they had lost wages in order to fraudulently recover benefits from insurance companies.

According to the indictment, one of the firm’s lawyers offered to give money to a physician to influence his testimony in a case in which a client was awarded $95,000 in a lawn mower accident.

In another case, a witness made up a story that a New York City bus driver had negligently allowed a disembarking passenger to cross the street into traffic, prosecutors charged. A jury awarded the plaintiff in excess of $2 million in that case, but the verdict was reversed on appeal. In February, 1986, before a second trial, the parties settled the case for about $1 million.

In addition to Eisen, the grand jury named as defendants Joseph P. Napoli, the chief trial lawyer for the firm; Harold M. Fishman, another of its lawyers; Alan Weinstein and Leonard Kagel, licensed private investigators; Dennis Rella and Marty Gabe, unlicensed private investigators who helped the firm’s lawyers prepare cases, and Geraldine G. Morganti, the firm’s office administrator.

All eight were charged with violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and with conspiracy to commit the RICO violation. If convicted, the defendants could face a 20 year prison term and fines.