The Lawyer Who Invented a Way to Take Cash From Accident Victims

Bloomberg Business reports:

George Rawlings grabs a stack of computer printouts and stretches them six feet across his office, admiring data from police reports of Florida auto accidents: the names of those hurt and the severity of their injuries.

For Rawlings, this information is gold. It’s his job to track these injured people down and collect money from them.

“Finding personal injury claims is really hard to do,” he says about his trade. “We invented a way to identify them.”

The Kentucky lawyer is the father of a little-known but burgeoning industry that helped insurers like Aetna Inc. and Kaiser Permanente recover at least $3.5 billion in 2014 alone from policyholders hurt by someone else’s negligence. A growing body of law, including a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision, gives health insurers power to recoup expenses for medical treatment.

Critics say people end up being victimized twice, with Rawlings Company, and the competitors that its success has spawned, essentially acting as bounty hunters. Even though they paid their premiums, people often must reimburse insurers out of whatever compensation they receive for their injuries, sometimes leaving them with only a pittance.

An article well worth your time.