A personal injury lawyer has been publicly censured after he verified in a complaint that his clients' injuries met a statutorily defined "serious" threshold when he believed the injuries did not, and after he took years to file the clients' motor vehicle accident case—which was later dismissed—while allegedly not telling the clients he filed the suit.

The attorney, Raphael Weitzman, who it appears runs a solo or boutique practice with offices in New York, three other states and Washington, D.C., also contended to a court that there was "new evidence concerning deterioration of [the clients'] medical and economic conditions" but later appeared to admit to a grievance committee that there was no evidence of such deterioration.