Rowley threatens lawsuits against 'bad actors' in plaintiffs' bar

Trial lawyer Nick Rowley said California plaintiffs' attorneys need to police their own ranks -- including suing lawyers and doctors engaged in unethical practices -- if they hope to head off a new wave of tort reform.

Rowley, a prominent plaintiffs' attorney who has helped finance and lead several major political battles, said a small number of personal injury lawyers and medical providers are damaging the profession by pushing clients toward unnecessary medical treatment to inflate claims.

"We need to combat it by holding those people accountable, by reporting them to the State Bar, by reporting these doctors to the medical boards, by suing them if we have to, doing whatever it takes to put a stop to these unethical practices," Rowley told the Daily Journal at the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles' annual convention.

Rowley said the practices are providing ammunition to insurance companies and corporations seeking caps on damages and attorney fees.

"Tort reform is coming," he said. "It's coming at civil justice."

Rowley described what he said was a recurring practice in which attorneys and doctors build medical expenses based on the amount of insurance available rather than a client's medical needs.

He said he has encountered cases in which clients underwent surgeries they did not need, sometimes leaving them with chronic pain and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.

"A minority of law firms and a minority of health care providers ... are very unethical and are not doing things the right way," Rowley said. "What they are doing and the way they are working up cases is hurting people."

He also criticized "capping," in which attorneys pay tow-truck drivers, hospital employees or others for client referrals, saying the practice continues despite prohibitions against it.

Rowley said plaintiffs' lawyers should report misconduct rather than remain silent.

"Judges need to start reporting lawyers," he said. "Lawyers need to start reporting lawyers if this stuff is going on. And if we start policing ourselves, this will stop very quickly."

But Rowley said cleaning up the profession is only part of the response. Successful trial lawyers also have an obligation to finance political efforts protecting the civil justice system, he said.

Rowley helped lead fundraising against an Uber-backed ballot initiative this year, saying plaintiffs' lawyers raised more than $80 million before reaching a negotiated agreement with the company. He said the Consumer Attorneys of California now has a roughly $40 million political war chest.

At the CAALA convention, however, Rowley said some lawyers who have profited enormously from California's personal injury system have failed to contribute their share.

He said he withdrew from a scheduled appearance on the convention's Masters panel because one participating attorney -- whom he did not name -- had made "hundreds of millions of dollars" from automobile personal injury cases but contributed only $25,000 to the fight against Uber.

"I thought that was despicable," Rowley said. "And that person shouldn't have a platform to speak. So I said, 'If that's who you're giving a platform to, then I'm not going to help by speaking.'"

Rowley said wealthy trial lawyers have a responsibility to protect the system that made their success possible.

"If we're successful ... we get to make a lot of money," he said. "My belief is that we have an obligation, a duty to give back."