Personal injury lawyer disbarred after pleading guilty in stolen accident report scheme
A Georgia personal injury attorney was disbarred after pleading guilty for his part in a scheme to use stolen accident reports for finanial gain. (Image from Shutterstock)
The Georgia Supreme Court has disbarred a personal injury lawyer who pleaded guilty for his part in a scheme using stolen accident reports to find clients and financially benefit from settlement money.
The state’s high court on Wednesday disbarred William Taylor Payne, who was convicted in a scheme involving a police department employee and others who illegally accessed law enforcement accident reports over 30,000 times between Jan. 1 and Aug. 12, 2015, for financial gain, Law360 reports.
Payne used the data to solicit and obtain clients for personal injury cases for the William Taylor Payne PC law firm, according to records from the DeKalb County Superior Court in Georgia. The data was stolen from the Georgia Electronic Accident Reporting System, a secure computer website and database of police accidents created and maintained by LexisNexis on behalf of the state’s Department of Transportation, according to court documents.
In a statement to Law360, Miles Stephen Cowan, counsel for Payne, said his client was a dedicated lawyer who raised a daughter as a single parent.
“Since Bill is now in his early 80s, I can attest to what was a very fine career as a litigator who could be relied on to cite statutory authority on a wide range of matters, by rote memory, particularly the evidence code and civil practice act,” Cowan said.
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