Charges have been filed against 10 attorneys and six cappers in a multi-million dollar workers’ compensation insurance referral scheme in Orange County. This makes Orange County history as the lawsuit with the most attorneys charged in one case in the county. The charges are the result of a 3-year investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office (OCDA) Bureau of Investigation, Insurance Fraud Unit, and the California Department of Insurance (CDI).
The capper defendants in the case allegedly operated a referral “mill,” which helped secure illegal referral contracts with several workers compensation and personal defense attorneys. Defendant attorneys are accused of paying the cappers to provide an agreed upon number of retained clients each month. These clients were obtained by the cappers, who ran misleading websites that offered free consultations for legal services. Clients who requested legal services were funneled to attorneys and medical providers who partook in the scheme. No medical providers have been formally charged, but many are under investigation for paying for patients provided by the cappers.