Andrew Wolfson at the Louisville Courier Journal reports on the law suit filed by the former associate of the Winters & Yonkers Personal Injury law firm. He claims that the firm fired him because he refused to refer personal injury clients to a certain chiropractor that works with the firm. This is an excerpt from Wolfson's story: "A former associate at Winters & Yonker, the law firm that does massive advertising, claims he was fired for refusing to go along with an arrangement in which he says the firm trades clients with medical clinics that diagnose and treat personal injuries.
Gadlage said in his suit, filed Wednesday in Jefferson Circuit Court, that sending clients to Kompothecras’ clinics made cases harder to settle. In an interview, he said that was because the clinic charged higher medical bills that insurance companies didn’t want to pay.
In a statement, the law firm’s outside counsel, Ron Green, denied that it trades clients with Kompothecras. Green said since the middle of 2009 the firm has provided clients with a 'menu of medical providers that the firm thinks well of” and has each client sign a document confirming they received a choice of physician.
The suit does not name Kompothecras as a defendant, and he couldn’t be reached for comment.
Kentucky ethics rules bar lawyers from giving anything of value for a referral[.]"
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I've talked about this sort of thing in my posts about "whore doctors." I'm not pre-judging the claim against Winters & Yonkers, but these big personal injury firms are primarily entities with a certain business models that they adhere to. These firms need to obtain certain "inputs" necessary for successful resolutions or outcomes, i.e. settlements, um cash. By working with doctors or chiropractors who play ball the lawyers hope to obtain "reporting" and medical forensic evidence to support the personal injury claims they process. I suppose this is all well and good except when what they're doing is UNETHICAL.
An online search turns up information indicating that chiropractor Kompothecras has quite an operation with over 40 "medical" facilities in Florida alone.
We'll keep an eye on this story.
That chiropractor is the real story, friend of Charlie Crist and Scott Rothstein. Piece of work.
ReplyDeletethis is only the tip of the iceberg, the recriprocal referrals in floria are out of control. a group of about ten lawyers and askgary advertise no television all the time, you cannot watch tv for ten minutes on any channel without seeing one of their misleading and deceptive commercials. askgary advertises he is a medical and lawyer referral service, but only refers to his own clinics. basically askgary is a front for his own clinics.
ReplyDeleteWill someone please take this guy down. He is an embarrasment to legitimate doctors. This is fertile ground for a good investigative journalist.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this explains why Morgan hired Charlie. Charlie and Gary got in bed together when the PIP law sunsetted in Fla. and made sure it rose again.
ReplyDeleteI was a client of ask gary and referred to a lawyer in tampa. in three months the chiropractic office they sent me to physicians group charged over 12 thousands dollars for ajustments,massage and visits. what a scam, most walk away without nothing. except the lawyers and doctors. some even end up owing money even though they were the victims. Sad My next lawyer if needed will be chosen carefully and I have kept several friends from call these ask gary and 411 pain doc in a box scams.
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