NEW PROFESSION

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 24, 6 September 1928, Page 7

NEW PROFESSION

“FLOPPING” FOR A L,IV INC,

BIG INSURANCE FRAUD.

NEW. YORK.

“Ambulance Chasing” in New York, to which reference was made in a previous telegram, has led, as the official inquiry here shows, to the exposure of a bogus accident ring involving serious charges against un* principled lawyers and doctors, Irving Fuhr told the judge who is presiding over the inquiry how he flopped or pretended to fall over defective objects and thus suffer various “injuries.” For this ho earned a salary of £lO to £ls per \ week, which h)e received from an “agency” to which he sold his on a contingent basis of 50 , per * cent. / of the damages recovered. Tliis expert, in posing for imaginary accidents, chiefly in Buildings protected by insuranco ) told the judge that he h|id done as many as ten “flops”- per day without injury., He became so successful that he went into the flop business on his own account with a lawyer named Cohen. He did seventy-five flops for Cohen, and then worked for the greatest organiser in fake accidents, a man named Laulidhjt.

Daniel Laulicht, who is now serving a sentence of three years’ imprisonment. in connection with “ambulance chasing,” mentioned! the names of thirteen lawyers and several doctors as participators in fraudulent claims. A scout was employed by the ring to hunt for defects in pavements and cellar covers and! here the “flops” of men and girls were staged in the presence of thje agency’s “witnesses. Laulicht and Joel Kirschner, a lawyer, pleaded guilty last April to participation in the plot through which insurance companies were defrauded of thousand's of pounds in faked motor-car accidents. Laulicht described Fuhr as a “first-class Hopper, very quick to discover passible causes of accident, and then make false claims to recover damages for injury.” Bogus physical examinations took place, and certificates alleging “injury” were given to the “victims by disreputable physicians working with the ring. By collusion with an insurance broker, Laulicht testified tips were obtained as to the building or property best suited for flopping by virtue of the amount for which it was insured. Witnesses stated that, “ambulance chasing” as outlined exists in ynost American cities, and employs quite a number of people lured by 1 easy money.