NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — It’s a chiropractic controversy. One Middle Tennessee law firm is calling out what they say is a scam targeting victims of car accidents.
So, how does it work?
“There are a group of lawyers, clearly not all, that have, whether it’s from listening to police scanners, using tow truck drivers, a variety of different people, before a crash report is even created after an accident, they’re calling people that look like they aren’t at fault,” said Blair Durham, an attorney with Bart Durham Injury Law.
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Durham told News 2 these individuals will say they’re from a hospital, insurance, or they’re an advocate for people who have been in car wrecks. He said they’ll say if you come to their clinic, they can get you free medical care. The brokers offer to schedule appointments, give cash advances, and refer crash victims to attorneys without saying how they got their personal information.
“They ask you to sign a lien so that the charges for the chiropractor are protected, and you’ll get it back from the insurance company,” said Durham. “Unfortunately, the scam hurts them in the long run most of the time because they would be entitled to more money. They would be entitled to who they chose to represent them, who they chose to get medical care from.”
Durham said this practice has been ongoing for years in Middle Tennessee but has recently seen an uptick in Davidson County.
He said it raises concerns about whether it’s an unethical form of solicitation or a referral program in violation of attorney bar rules. “Our ethical rules prevent us from contacting anyone until 30 days have gone by since the crash, and then when we do contact them it has to be by letter, and it has to say this is an ad,” Durham told News 2. “The same is true for chiropractors.”
So, what should you do if you get one of these calls? Durham said to hang up, especially if you don’t have a crash report yet, because it could save you time and money when it’s time to deal with insurance.
“They run through all of your medical care, and they assign a value essentially and if you get all this extra medical care that you don’t need and that takes weeks, months, they’re not going to value that,” said Durham.
According to Durham, local law firms, including his, have contacted the state Attorney General to bring the issue to light.
