Chasers Chased

In Seattle, when a pedestrian is hit by a car. shyster lawyers send runners to the victim to tell him they saw the accident and recommend that their employers be retained for a damage suit. In New Orleans ambulance-chasers frequent police stations, are so friendly with policemen that they ride to accidents in patrol cars. In San Francisco in 1933, four doctors and five other employes of an emergency hospital were suspended for tipping off attorneys about accidents. In New York City, after insurance companies paid $9,449,916 in automobile injury claims in 1935, an Accident Fraud Bureau was set up under Assistant District Attorney Bernard Botein. He found two widespread rackets: 1) "floppers," who fall in the street, claim to have been hit by a passing car; 2) rings, like the Hurwitz gang, which stage accidents in which driver, victim, lawyer and doctor share the boodle. New York now has the fake automobile accident racket so well in hand that last week State Superintendent of Insurance Louis Pink recommended a 7% reduction in liability rates. Simultaneously in Chicago was uncovered the most vicious and successful ambulance-chasing racket exposed to date.

Last month a steel elevated train rammed a wooden one on Chicago's North Side, killing11, injuring 67. Some of the victims complained of ambulance chasers. Last week, after a secret investigation, police arrested eight ringleaders, estimated that their gang comprised 1,500 lawyers, doctors, undertakers, hospital attaches, police station loungers, runners, streetcar motormen, professional witnesses.

Chicago's ambulance-chasers not only swindle insurance companies and corporations, but also the accident victims. To the familiar varieties of the racket they added many a new angle. Sample case history: John Doe, hit by a taxi, was hospitalized. At once a hospital attendant earned $10 by telephoning the racketeers. In a few minutes their representative appeared. Denied admittance, he proved good faith by paying the patient's bill in advance. He soon got Doe to sign a contract hiring his employer and agreeing to pay him 50% of the money won from a damage suit against the taxi company. Then Doe was transferred to a hospital where the gang had a doctor. X-rays were taken of his leg, retouched to indicate it was broken. The plates won a fat fee from the taxi company, but Doe never saw his share. Kept in the hospital for weeks recovering from injuries he did not have, he ended up with a bill which completely absorbed his half of the money. This sort of ambulance-chasing, Chicago police are now set to chase from the city.

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