California lawmakers, local officials and labor leaders are demanding an audit of Los Angeles County’s historic $4-billion sex abuse settlement as well as a State Bar investigation into a law firm that represents thousands of alleged victims.
The call follows a Los Angeles Times investigation that revealed some plaintiffs in the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history said vendors paid them cash to sue the county, with two telling The Times that vendors instructed them to fabricate the claims. All of the plaintiffs in the report had lawsuits filed by Downtown LA Law Group (DTLA), a personal injury firm with more than 2,700 cases in the settlement.
DTLA denied that it had any involvement with vendors, who some plaintiffs said paid them to file suit, and The Times could not reach the vendors for comment.
A majority of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors expressed outrage.
“I’m disgusted,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the chair of the county board of supervisors, which approved the settlement this April. “It is appalling that dishonest lawyers and individuals would exploit reforms that were meant to deliver justice to survivors of abuse.”
On Friday, Barger introduced a motion calling on county lawyers to investigate "any alleged misconduct by legal repreresentatives" involved in sex abuse lawsuits against the county.
DTLA has categorically denied paying people to sue and said no representative of the firm had been authorized to make payments. The firm said...
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