Los Angeles County Counsel announced\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0launching an investigation into Downtown L.A.\u00a0Law Group, among others, for potential fraudulent\u00a0sexual abuse claims against the county, according to an L.A. County\u00a0news release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The claims are related\u00a0to Assembly Bill 218, which went into effect in 2020 and\u00a0allowed sex abuse victims to file lawsuits until age 40 or within five years of discovery.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger\u00a0said in a news release\u00a0Friday\u00a0that she strongly supports the investigation, adding that she was the\u00a0author of the motion that created\u00a0a\u00a0hotline\u00a0for suspected cases of fraudulent claims related to AB 218.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFalse claims spread like wildfire\u00a0\u2014\u00a0they damage credibility, drain critical resources, and hurt the very survivors\u00a0this\u00a0law was meant to help. If you try to game the system, Los Angeles County will respond,\u201d Barger, whose district includes the Santa Clarita Valley,\u00a0said in the statement. \u201cWe will protect survivors, defend taxpayers and uphold the integrity of this process.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The investigation comes in the wake of\u00a0two major settlements with thousands of\u00a0people\u00a0who\u2019ve claimed\u00a0to have been sexually abused at county facilities, including schools, juvenile halls\u00a0and foster homes:\u00a0a\u00a0$4 billion\u00a0settlement with 6,800 claimants approved in April 2025\u00a0and\u00a0an $828 million settlement with more than 400 claimants, according to the county press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The L.A. Times\u00a0reported in October 2025 that\u00a0reporters\u00a0found seven people, desperate for cash, who were paid\u00a0by recruiters\u00a0outside the\u00a0South Central county\u00a0benefits office to sue the county for sex abuse\u00a0\u2013 all filed by DTLA\u00a0Law Group.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the county press release, it was announced\u00a0that county counsel had issued an administrative subpoena to DTLA Law Group,\u00a0\u201cseeking documents related to\u00a0the firm\u2019s business practices\u00a0in handling AB 218 claims.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It added that county counsel had recommended DTLA Law Group both to the\u00a0Los Angeles County\u00a0District Attorney\u2019s Office\u00a0and the California\u00a0State Bar, which have both opened their own investigations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Times\u00a0reported that,\u00a0in a court filing\u00a0earlier this month, DTLA attorney Andrew Morrow argued that\u00a0complying with\u00a0the state bar\u2019s subpoena\u00a0for their court records as part of\u00a0the bar\u2019s\u00a0investigation into the firm would violate\u00a0the firm\u2019s client\u2019s privacy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis also\u00a0said she supported the investigation, saying fraud claims hurt real sex abuse victims.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFalse AB 218 sexual abuse claims filed by lawyers for financial gain are deeply troubling \u2013 they undermine real victims and divert resources from the essential services the\u00a0county provides,\u201d Solis said\u00a0in the statement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch conduct is wrong and appalling. On behalf of the Board of Supervisors, I urge anyone with information about this alleged\u00a0scam\u00a0to come forward and report what they know. Such information can be provided anonymously.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles County Counsel announced\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0launching an investigation into Downtown L.A.\u00a0Law Group, among others, for potential fraudulent\u00a0sexual abuse claims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-197377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-headlines","10":"tag-la-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","13":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}