Houston Personal Injury Lawyer Escapes Charge in Kickbacks Case

A former Houston personal injury attorney on Thursday shook one conviction for allegedly making false statements to the IRS, but failed to convince the Fifth Circuit to toss his other fraud convictions.

Richard Plezia was charged with joining a circle of personal-injury attorneys who enriched themselves by illegally hiring case runners to solicit clients—an impermissible practice called barratry—then falsely reported their gains on their returns. The leader of the attorney group, Jeffrey Stern, paid kickbacks to the runners by funneling payments through Plezia and other participants, the government said.

After Stern paid $4.35 million in restitution to the IRS and ...