When the woman finished speaking, the courtroom was silent. The judge peered menacingly over the bench at the lawyer for the plaintiff and asked, “Do you have anything you would like the court to consider?” The lawyer quietly responded, “Yes your honor, we would like to withdraw.” The lawyers for the doctor and transportation company quickly chimed in “Judge, could we have an extension to respond to these salacious allegations?” “Allegations?” the judge asked incredulously. “Sir, she is reading from the plaintiff’s deposition transcript!”

As we all expected, the Judge granted the motion and the plaintiff’s insurance claims were dismissed in their entirety.

For the past few years, we in the plaintiff’s personal injury world have all heard rumors of this type of misconduct, however, this was the first time I had seen hard evidence of it. The sad truth is that this is undoubtedly not a single isolated incident. Auto insurance claims make up a billion dollar industry. Of course, anytime there is that much money at stake, greed and corruption tend to rear their ugly heads. Unfortunately, the victims in all of this are those people who have legitimate auto accident claims.

A. Vince Colella, Managing Partner of Moss & Colella, P.C.