Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 2008
Rights
Abstract
This Article examines the working relationship between the insurance industry and prosecutors in the insurance fraud prosecution context. Both informal and legislatively mandated relationships are examined and funding schemes reviewed. The Article argues that specialized funding of investigators and prosecutors by industry assessment has led to perceptions of industry influence on the impartiality of the prosecutor. The Article then reviews the capacity of perceived influence to chill tort plaintiff lawyer activity. The Article concludes that the potential for conflict exists and is sufficient to warrant due process consideration. Additionally, the Article offers suggestions for potential prophylactic procedural safeguards in the course of prosecuting lawyers for their representative actions in the insurance fraud context.
Publication Title
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
First Page
363
Last Page
428
Recommended Citation
Aviva Abramovsky,
An Unholy Alliance: Perceptions of Influence in Insurance Fraud Prosecutions and the Need for Real Safeguards,
98
J. Crim. L. & Criminology
363
(2008).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles/5