Opinion ID: 1170222
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Warwick Solicitation

Text: The first count of the notice to show cause charged petitioner with soliciting, through Lieberman, Maralee Warwick, who had been involved in an automobile accident on April 22, 1970. The police were not called to the scene of the accident, but Miss Warwick reported the accident to her insurance carrier the next morning. She was taken to the Orthopaedic Hospital for X-rays the day after the accident occurred. She did not recall talking with anyone at the hospital except the doctor who attended her. That evening she received a telephone call from Lieberman. She did not know either Lieberman or petitioner and had never heard of petitioner's law firm. She had an unlisted telephone number and she did not know how Lieberman had obtained it. Lieberman told her that he was an investigator for petitioner's law firm and understood she had been in an automobile accident. When Miss Warwick asked how he knew about it, he was rather vague but indicated that someone at the hospital may have told him. He suggested that Miss Warwick see a certain doctor, who, he said, would prescribe heat treatments, which were fun. After Miss Warwick told Lieberman that she did not intend to see the doctor he recommended (she was covered by the Kaiser medical plan), Lieberman told her that she could make at least $1,000 after payment of her medical and legal fees; and he asked her to let him come out at once to have her sign a retainer agreement. She told him, however, that she would not sign anything without consulting someone. Although Lieberman, when testifying, claimed he could not remember what he had said to Miss Warwick, he did admit that it was possible he had suggested that she retain petitioner's law firm. Two days after the accident, Lieberman called again to see if Miss Warwick would sign a retainer, but she refused. She heard nothing further from either Lieberman or petitioner's law firm.