ALBANY – Several judges on the state Court of Appeals expressed reservations yesterday about countenancing the filing of false information in retainer statements and whether that, in and of itself, represented an intent to defraud on the part of a law firm implicated in an auto insurance scam.
“If you lie to the Office of Court Administration as a lawyer and you say ‘I did not issue any referral fees here,’ I think that’s an intent to defraud that impacts your [law] license,” Judge Eugene F. Pigott Jr. said during oral arguments in People v. Taylor, 2. “And it seems to me if there is going to be an enforcement of that, we can’t simply say, ‘Well, put down anything you want. It’s not serious and we’re not going to do anything with that because OCA and Beaver Street don’t do anything with them.’”
