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Disbarred Personal Injury Lawyer’s Suit for Fees Is Permitted to Move Forward


— June 18, 2007

A lawsuit initiated by former personal injury attorney Morris J. Eisen against a law firm that allegedly failed to pay him for work he performed on cases he referred to it when he was disbarred will go forward following a Manhattan judge’s denial of the firm’s motion to dismiss.

Eisen was disbarred in 1992 by the Appellate Division, 1st Department, based on his conviction the preceding year for racketeering.

At his criminal trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Eisen and six co-defendants won multi-million dollar verdicts by fabricating evidence and bribing witnesses. They smashed a car with a sledgehammer to increase the apparent damage, enlarged a pot hole with a pick ax to exaggerate its danger and used shrunken images of rulers to make potholes appear deeper, prosecutors claimed. A co-conspirator allegedly paid a witness to proffer the same testimony regarding two different car accidents, one of which occurred while the witness was in jail for possession of stolen property.

Eisen was sentenced to 57 months in prison and was released after serving three years. He was disbarred in January 1992. . . .

[I]n denying the [defendant] firm’s motion [to dismiss], New York Supreme Court Justice Marylin G. Diamond cited as precedent a prior action for unpaid fees waged by Eisen against a different set of defendants, Eisen v. Feder, 307 AD2d 817.

In Eisen, the 1st Department held that Eisen may recover on a quantum meruit basis for lawsuits completed by other attorneys following his disbarment and that the six-year statute of limitations commenced at the time of the disposition of each individual case.

Eisen may therefore pursue claims for any cases disposed of by Shapiro Uchman within six years of the commencement of the present case on Feb. 16, 2007, Diamond ruled.

That just doesn’t seem right . . . . Details here from the New York Law Journal via Law.com.


A lawsuit initiated by former personal injury attorney Morris J. Eisen against a law firm that allegedly failed to pay him for work he performed on cases he referred to it when he was disbarred will go forward following a Manhattan judge’s denial of the firm’s motion to dismiss.

Eisen was disbarred in 1992 by the Appellate Division, 1st Department, based on his conviction the preceding year for racketeering.

At his criminal trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Eisen and six co-defendants won multi-million dollar verdicts by fabricating evidence and bribing witnesses. They smashed a car with a sledgehammer to increase the apparent damage, enlarged a pot hole with a pick ax to exaggerate its danger and used shrunken images of rulers to make potholes appear deeper, prosecutors claimed. A co-conspirator allegedly paid a witness to proffer the same testimony regarding two different car accidents, one of which occurred while the witness was in jail for possession of stolen property.

Eisen was sentenced to 57 months in prison and was released after serving three years. He was disbarred in January 1992. . . .

[I]n denying the [defendant] firm’s motion [to dismiss], New York Supreme Court Justice Marylin G. Diamond cited as precedent a prior action for unpaid fees waged by Eisen against a different set of defendants, Eisen v. Feder, 307 AD2d 817.

In Eisen, the 1st Department held that Eisen may recover on a quantum meruit basis for lawsuits completed by other attorneys following his disbarment and that the six-year statute of limitations commenced at the time of the disposition of each individual case.

Eisen may therefore pursue claims for any cases disposed of by Shapiro Uchman within six years of the commencement of the present case on Feb. 16, 2007, Diamond ruled.

That just doesn’t seem right . . . . Details here from the New York Law Journal via Law.com.

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