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Lawyers May Never Share Fees With a Non-Lawyer  

https://zalma.com/blog

The decision, In re Oheb, No. 99-C-11161 (Cal. Bar Rev. 07/16/2004) a  hearing judge\\u2019s recommended that respondent Tamir Oheb be placed on four  years\\u2019 stayed suspension and on four years\\u2019 probation with conditions,  including two years\\u2019 actual suspension. Oheb admitted that \\u201c[t]he  detailed findings of the Hearing Department are amply supported by the  record\\u201d and that \\u201c[t]he degree of discipline recommended by the Hearing  Department is well-supported and should be adopted\\u201d by the review  department.  Oheb, after pleading nolo contendere, he was convicted in the Los  Angeles Superior Court on two felony counts of violating Penal Code  section 549 for accepting referrals of personal injury clients with  reckless disregard for whether the referring party or the referred  clients intended to make false or fraudulent insurance claims.  Given that either reckless disregard or knowledge of intent of another  to commit insurance fraud is an element of the offense \\u2013 since Oheb pled  to the \\u201creckless disregard\\u201d element the Bar concluded it was unable to  conclude that Penal Code section 549 inherently involves moral  turpitude.  Oheb was told, and believed, that Gottlieb had been a very successful  \\u201cattorney for 25 years plus, that [Gottlieb] was a litigator, [that  Gottlieb] had worked for a number of famous attorneys,\\u201d that Gottlieb  had a \\u201chuge book of business\\u201d that he was willing to refer to  respondent, and that he was willing to teach respondent how to litigate.  As silly and patently illegal was the offer, Oheb in financial  difficulty, agreed with Gottlieb to split the attorney\\u2019s fees on each  case Gottlieb referred to Oheb: 25 percent to Oheb and 75 percent to  Gottlieb whenever Gottlieb had to buy the case or otherwise had to pay  money to someone in connection with the case, and 50 percent each  whenever Gottlieb did not have to buy the case or otherwise have to pay  for some expense related to the case or whenever Gottlieb bought the  case from a specific individual who did not charge much for cases.  \\xa9 2021 \\u2013 Barry Zalma  Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an  insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance  claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost  equally for insurers and policyholders. He also serves as an arbitrator  or mediator for insurance related disputes. He practiced law in  California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims  handling lawyer and more than 52 years in the insurance business. He is  available at http://www.zalma.com and zalma@zalma.com.  Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE  Legend Award.  Over the last 53 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance,  insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created  the following library of books and other materials to make it possible  for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims  professionals.  Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma;  Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library \\u2013 https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ Read posts from Barry Zalma at https://parler.com/profile/Zalma/posts; and Read last two issues of ZIFL here.