There is a special place in hell for phony victims who take money from settlements meant for the legitimate victims of sexual abuse. Ahead of them, however, come the lawyers who make such scams work and pocket as much as half the settlements themselves.

If an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Times holds up, hell will have to make room for the lawyers and clients of the DTLA (Downtown LA Law Group), a firm best known for doing car accident cases. DTLA managed to sign up more than 2,700 people to sue LA County for sex abuse in juvenile facilities and foster homes, which resulted in a record settlement of $4 billion, with DTLA receiving nearly half the money paid to each individual.

How did they do it? After so many years in this field, I know, or know of, most of the experienced sexual misconduct lawyers who take on the massive task of putting together a case like this. DTLA is not one of them. So how did they get so many clients? According to the Times investigators, they violated state law by paying them, using vendors who hung outside the county benefits office and offered cash to people, on behalf of DTLA, to sue the county for sex abuse. Some of those paid to sue said they had been abused but didn't plan to sue until they received cash; some had never been abused at all and were told to fabricate tales of abuse.

Last spring, the county agreed to a record-breaking $4 billion settlement with 11,000 plaintiffs, about a quarter of whom were represented by DTLA, dating back to the 1950s. It is the largest sex abuse settlement in history. Because the county doesn't have records that go back that far, they relied on the lawyers to do the vetting. In this case, the lawyers stand to collect more than $1 billion in fees. "The whole thing just stinks," said John Manly, one of the most respected and experienced sexual misconduct lawyers in the business and a lead attorney in the settlements against USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and USC gynecologist George Tyndall, told the Times. "It looks to me like a third of these cases are total bull——, and (the county) is paying for no reason."

There is a reason California law prevents the practice of "capping" or paying people to bring lawsuits. It's because it invites fraud. Offering desperate people waiting outside the county benefits office money to bring a lawsuit is no way to get to the truth. I don't blame the poor and sick people who take a hundred or two hundred dollars nearly as much as I do the lawyers who pay them. They should know better. They should know how they get these clients.

I have been advocating for the victims of sexual assault since I graduated from law school more than 40 years ago. I helped to found the Victim Rights Law Center in Boston, the first organization devoted to ensuring that the victims of sexual assault have legal representation. I believe in listening to victims. But I know, painfully well, that not everyone claiming to be a victim is telling the truth.

We depend on lawyers to be the gatekeepers to the system, to vet their cases and confirm the facts before they bring the case. That is particularly true in sexual abuse cases, where just bringing a case against a defendant, even without any settlement or adjudication on the merits, can destroy a reputation. It is also true in cases like this one, where it is not the guilty individual but the rest of us — the public — that is paying the tab.

For its part, DTLA is denying everything. They have hired Mitch Langberg, a friend of mine and a highly respected defamation lawyer, to protect their reputation. He has his work cut out for him. Since the LA Times story broke a few days ago, there have been calls for an audit of the settlement and an investigation of the firm. Both are essential.

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Tingey Injury Law Firm at Unsplash