The California State Bar has charged a founding partner of Downtown LA Law Group, a law firm at the center of a scandal that has embroiled Los Angeles County\u2019s historic sex abuse settlement, with signing up dozens of clients in states where none of the firm\u2019s lawyers were licensed to practice.<\/p>\n
The bar charged<\/a> Salar Hendizadeh, who left the firm this fall, on March 5 with helping one of Southern California\u2019s largest personal injury law firms sign accident victims across the country, despite lacking attorneys who could litigate the cases in other states. Hendizadeh was charged with eleven counts, including deceptive advertising and charging illegal fees.<\/p>\n State Bar Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona said in a statement the allegations, if proved, \u201crepresent dishonest and illegal conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n Hendizadeh and a spokesperson for Downtown LA Law Group did not provide a comment Monday. <\/p>\n The firm had roughly 40 clients in Texas, where it operated under the name \u201cLone Star Injury Law Firm\u201d and branded itself \u201cTexas\u2019s #1 Injury Law Firm,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n The firm had one L.A.-based attorney licensed to practice in Texas, Darren McBratney, but he left the firm in early 2022. The bar claims the firm refused to remove the attorney\u2019s name from its website for years, ignoring a cease and desist letter from McBratney\u2019s new employer.<\/p>\n Typically, attorneys can take cases in states where they\u2019re not licensed, but they need to partner with local counsel or get permission from the court. In many cases, the bar alleged, DTLA made no effort to do so and left their out-of-state clients in the lurch.<\/p>\n The firm told a Maryland car crash victim her case was worth $1 million and encouraged her to see a California spinal surgeon who charged roughly $300,000 for surgery, according to the complaint. She fired the firm after she got a settlement offer of $160,000 \u2014 not enough, she believed, to cover her medical fees, the complaint said.<\/p>\n Attorneys signed up a Tennessee client who was injured at a Nashville rental car business, but the one-year statute of limitations ran out before they filed the case, the bar complaint said. The firm offered to pay for all of his medical bills and one year of physical therapy \u201cas a form of restitution,\u201d according to the complaint. <\/p>\n The charges come as DTLA faces another pending investigation<\/a> from the State Bar in connection with thousands of sexual abuse lawsuits the firm filed against Los Angeles County, along with a probe<\/a> from the district attorney\u2019s office. Both have said they are looking into allegations<\/a> surfaced by The Times last fall that DTLA paid clients to file claims, some of which were allegedly fabricated, that became part of a $4-billion settlement<\/a>, the largest of its kind in U.S. history. The firm has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing.<\/p>\n