Legal Newsline: NYC files racketeering suit against two trial lawyers

By: Daniel Fisher

Following in the footsteps of insurance companies that have accused personal injury lawyers of fraud, New York City filed a racketeering suit against a pair of lawyers who allegedly have recruited hundreds of people to file fake claims against the city.

Named in the racketeering influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) suit are Ryan H. Asher, Roberta D. Asher and their firm Asher & Associates, as well as unnamed “runners” and financiers who allegedly facilitated the scheme.

In the complaint, New York cites 15 examples of what it calls “false narratives” in which clients sought money from the city for injuries they blamed on poorly maintained roadways but were contradicted by their own medical records.

“In moving from emergency room to courtroom the Asher defendants’ clients’ narratives undergo a remarkable metamorphosis in which a punch in the jaw, a blow from a lead pipe, an opened car door, or an encounter with a hit and run driver is transformed into that `defective, cracked, misleveled, broken, warped, elevated, depressed, or uneven’ roadway owned or controlled by the City,” New York states in the lawsuit filed October 4 in federal court.

The Ashers have hundreds more similar cases pending against the city, leading New York to say the examples it cited are only “the tip of the proverbial iceberg.” 

By suing the lawyers, New York is trying to break up a network it accuses of facilitating large-scale fraud that drives up government costs and insurance premiums. Private insurers have filed similar RICO suits with limited success against lawyers they accuse of recruiting workers and poor undocumented immigrants to file false workplace-injury and slip-and-fall cases, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and fees.

“We're thrilled to have Mayor Mamdani's Law Department in the trenches, tackling the legal system abuse that drives up costs throughout the economy, and makes New York less affordable for all,” said Tom Stebbins, Executive Director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.

In response to widespread reports of accident fraud, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed significant reforms into state law in May, making it a crime to stage false accidents, limiting noneconomic damages and barring medical providers with a history of misconduct from workers compensation claims.

Most of the cases New York cited in the RICO lawsuit against the Ashers involve clients who filed claims for $3 million against the city over accidents involving motor scooters and e-bikes.

Dorcus Vailes filed a $3 million claim over a pavement defect accident in October 2023, for example. But his medical records show he was admitted to the emergency room at least twice that month for accidents he attributed to other vehicles, not potholes or cracks.

Mark Boyd-Coggins claimed he was injured after his motorcycle hit a hole in the road but his medical records show he was hit by a car going through an intersection without wearing a helmet. When challenged by two co-defendants over the contradictory medical records, Asher dismissed their client’s against them while maintaining the lawsuit against the city, New York says. The law firm apparently did the same thing when a group of landlords challenged claims against them, dismissing their clients’ lawsuits with prejudice rather than attempt to pursue them in court.

Linthiel Boomer sought $3 million for an electric bike accident he blamed on a pothole. But his ER record shows he said he hit the back of a car. Khalil Rowe told his doctors he was injured when he rode his bicycle into a car door, yet Asher claimed a city street was to blame. Jermaine Corley sought millions for a broken arm but his medical records show he injured his wrist after he “was involved in a fight and fell.” Dwight Marshall sought $1 million for a sidewalk fall, although his medical records show he also was injured after getting hit with a lead pipe in a fight.

The records for Johans Rosero include a police report with a diagram showing how he was hit by a car making an illegal U-turn in an intersection. Yet Asher filed a claim stating under penalty of perjury that Rosero struck a defect in the roadway.

The city’s suit names multiple unnamed runners “who serve as personal injury brokers” by finding people with weak injury claims who are “willing to provide false narratives.” The city also cites unnamed litigation funders who invest in claims by fronting litigation expenses.

When the city refused to pay the claims they submitted, New York says the Ashers engaged in “protracted injury litigation.” The city is seeking as much as $28,000 for each false claim plus thousands of dollars in penalties and legal expenses. The Ashers didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. 

Last year, Ryan Asher was formally censured by the Attorney Grievance Committee for neglecting cases including lawsuits against the City of New York. He admitted to similar violations in 2009.