2 Encino Lawyers Charged in Scheme to Sell Referrals : Courts: Attorneys accused of plan to receive kickbacks from doctors for providing names of clients filing injury claims in refinery explosion.

Two Encino attorneys were charged Monday with planning the sale of patients’ names to a man they thought represented doctors, in the alleged hope of reaping kickbacks for the “referrals,” the district attorney’s office said.

One of the lawyers, 62-year-old Harold Blaisch, was also accused of selling the list for $5,000 to an undercover detective posing as a physician’s agent, Deputy Dist. Atty. Cliff Klein said.

Blaisch and his alleged partner, lawyer Charles Buchanan, 44, culled the patients’ names from thousands of plaintiffs they have been representing in wrongful injury lawsuits against Texaco Oil Co., owner of a Wilmington refinery that exploded in October, 1992, Klein said.

About 9,000 people have filed claims against Texaco as a result of the disaster--many of them clients of Blaisch and Buchanan--and the two lawyers had hoped to make additional money by selling their names to physicians who would in turn conduct medical exams for their respective lawsuits, Klein said.

Under the felony case filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Blaisch was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful referrals of clients and patients--in violation of the state’s insurance fraud laws--and one count of unlawful referrals.

Buchanan was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful referrals.

Buchanan, who said he works for Blaisch and denied any wrongdoing, acknowledged that his secretary provided Blaisch the names of about 100 clients needing medical evaluations. But he said he did not know what Blaisch intended to do with the list, other than make sure the clients were examined by a doctor, which was part of their task in the massive civil case against Texaco.

He said Blaisch was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

They are expected to be arraigned this week, once arrangements are made for their surrender.

If convicted, each faces a maximum of three years in prison, Klein said.

The central allegation in the case is that last month Buchanan supplied Blaisch with a list of people who had filed suits against Texaco and who would require medical exams. The same day, the charges allege, Blaisch met with an undercover police officer at a Valley restaurant and sold him the list for $5,000.

Blaisch allegedly also paid $250 to a middleman to arrange the meeting, prosecutors said.