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The City of New York has filed suit against Manhattan law firm Asher & Associates, P.C., and its principals for running a personal injury fraud scheme. The lawsuit, filed in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses the law firm of fraudulently filing more than a dozen notices of claim and related lawsuits seeking tens of millions of dollars from New York City and its Department of Transportation for injuries that the law firm falsely claimed its clients sustained in scooter, moped and bicycle accidents caused by roadway defects.
According to New York City’s complaint, the firm has claimed in legal filings that the City is negligent because roadway defects were the cause of injuries to their clients. These claims were made despite contradictory evidence given to responding ambulance and emergency room personnel documenting entirely different causes of injury, in which the City had no role. The complaint provides 15 examples of cases where the descriptions of injuries were consistent with assaults, hit-and-run driving accidents or rear-end collisions with stopped vehicles not roadway defects. For example:
- In Jermaine Corley v. The City of New York and the New York City Department of Transportation, a suit filed by Asher & Associates in 2022, the firm sought $3 million in damages alleging serious injury from a biking accident blamed on a defective roadway on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn where medical records indicated injuries from a fight.
- In 2022, Asher & Associates filed Boyd-Coggins v. City of New York seeking $3 million in damages based on the firm’s representations that a “ditch” or “hole” in the roadway caused a fall from an electric scooter on Fifth Avenue near West 139th Steet in Manhattan despite contrary statements to hospital personnel describing an automobile accident.
When the City or other defendants confronted Asher & Associates with these contradictory statements, the firm discontinued the cases without explanation. The allegations in the complaint describe the firm as routinely commencing parallel suits based on the same false narratives against utility companies and paving contractors whose past roadway work at the incident site was cited as a cause of the supposed roadway defect, resulting in prolonged, expensive, court-clogging litigation. The suit seeks treble damages under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and treble damages and penalties under the New York City and State False Claims Acts. The New York City False Claims Act imposes separate penalties of between $5,000 and $15,000 for each presentation to the City of a false claim or document supporting a false claim and treble damages. The State False Claims Act imposes even larger penalties.
If you or someone you love are injured in an car or bicycle accident in Buffalo, don’t wait to get help. The sooner you talk to someone, the sooner you can start getting answers. You deserve to have someone who listens to you, explains your rights, and works hard to get you what you need. Choosing the right attorney is a big step, and it can help you feel more in control during an extremely hard time. Call New York personal injury lawyers Friedman & Ranzenhofer, PC today at (716) 543-37664 for a free consultation.