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Is turnabout fair play? Are some con games okay, depending only on who’s getting taken advantage of?
Say hello to Bruce Gordon, one very creative con man. Gordon doesn’t steal money from insurance companies; he steals money from the PI attorneys who represent the claimants who present the claims. Ha ha ha ha …
Since 1990, approximately 50 lawsuits have been filed by an equal number of personal injury attorneys. Save a few very minor differences, the lawsuits read almost identical to one another.
The story Gordon tells is that he was hit by a truck while crossing a street. He advises that he was a pedestrian, in a cross-walk, at the intersection of Manchester and Figueroa. In most cases he adds the tidbit about the truck having a faulty breaking system and in some cases he adds that his minor son, Bruce Gordon Jr., witnessed the accident.
The meeting with the attorney usually occurs at a restaurant; the excuse Gordon uses for not meeting at his own home is that he lives in a very rough south-central Los Angeles housing project and the area is not safe for a visitor. Gordon’s “wife” often accompanies him, lending a certain amount of credence to the sad, sad story.
Gordon obviously possesses a certain amount of legal acumen, because in most cases the one-year statute of limitations is only one or two days away.
Imagine, if you will, what is going on in the head of the unwitting attorney as he watches poor Gordon enter the restaurant on crutches, sees the numerous leg scars and hears about the para-plegia that has robbed Gordon of his ability to walk without assistance. Then, the icing on the cake—with the wife nodding her agreement—is the woeful tale that the marriage is now devoid of sex.
The result of the conversation includes the signing of a retainer agreement and an advance of cab fare and medical expense money from the attorney to the disabled accident victim. In some cases it is a hundred dollar bill and in other cases it is more—much, much more.
Many of the attorneys lose more than the advance money—they also lose the $182 cost of filing the lawsuit.
Gordon … hero or bum?
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