June
5, 2001
Jeff Ostrowski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Cracking down on auto insurance fraud became more difficult
last week, after the Florida Supreme Court overturned a
25-year-old law banning a form of ambulance chasing.
State law prohibits chiropractors, doctors and lawyers
from contacting auto accident victims and charging treatment
to their personal injury protection, or PIP, coverage.
On Thursday, the court unanimously overturned that blanket
ban, saying a Fort Lauderdale chiropractor's solicitations
were legal because he didn't aim to defraud insurers.
The state Division of Insurance Fraud called the ruling
a setback. Insurers and regulators say auto insurance scams
steal hundreds of millions of dollars a year, resulting
in higher insurance rates for all drivers.
However, regulators say the ruling won't affect an anti-fraud
measure passed last month by the legislature. Gov. Jeb
Bush is expected to sign that bill.
Attorneys for two chiropractors charged under the law
say the Supreme Court gave a well-deserved victory to legitimate
commercial speech.
In 1996, the state charged Charles Bradford of Fort Lauderdale
and a dozen other chiropractors with illegally soliciting
patients. In 1997, chiropractor Randolph Hansbrough of
Stuart was charged with the same infraction.
The chiropractors paid Prebeck Consultants Inc. to refer
patients who had been in car crashes. While such solicitations
often lead to bogus bills for phantom treatment, neither
Bradford nor Hansbrough defrauded insurers.
In its unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court rejected a
blanket ban on solicitation.
"This statute constitutes an impermissible encroachment
upon First Amendment commercial speech rights," Justice
R. Fred Lewis wrote.
The court overturned Bradford's conviction, saying it
was improper because the chiropractor didn't aim to defraud
insurers but only sought legitimate customers. The court
didn't rule on Hansbrough's case, but his attorney said
he expects a similar decision.
Capt. John Askins, head of the Division of Insurance Fraud's
Miami office, said the ruling forces regulators to drop
prosecution of "quite a few" solicitation cases.
"They've pretty much tied our hands," Askins
said. "Organized PIP fraud is driven 100 percent by
the illegal act of solicitation."
A PIP fraud bill awaiting Gov. Bush's signature fine-tuned
the ban on solicitation without addressing the Supreme
Court's concerns. As a result of the ruling, the Department
of Insurance next year will ask lawmakers to change the
law to outlaw only solicitation with fraudulent intent,
spokeswoman Tami Torres said.
Bradford's attorney, Michael Dutko of Fort Lauderdale,
said such a change would make the law constitutional.
Regulators expect Bush to sign the PIP fraud package,
which also prevents scammers from seeing accident reports,
which solicitors use to find accident victims. They send
drivers to clinics where crooked doctors and chiropractors
file bogus bills.
The bill would block the public's access to accident reports
for 60 days, and it would offset the "harm" caused
by last week's ruling, said Jim Schneider, general counsel
for the Office of Statewide Prosecution. "That 60-day
cooling-off period is going to help a lot."
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