Their diagnoses are used as evidence in courtrooms and help injured workers get money to compensate for their ailments.

But questions now are popping up about the veracity of some workplace injury lawsuits after a law firm representing CSX Transportation discovered a worker was diagnosed by a doctor who may not exist.

Now CSX attorneys Marc Williams and David Bolen, both of Huddleston Bolen, are trying to have the worker's case dismissed, and they are using the proof of fraud as a reason to take another look at other asbestosis claims to see whether other workers were diagnosed by the same "doctor" or other non-existent doctors.

In addition, CSX's attorneys hope to question one of the larger asbestosis litigation firms in the region -- Pittsburgh-based law firm Robert Peirce & Associates -- to determine whether the lawyers there were involved in the bogus medical report.

"Given the circumstances at issue in these matters and the high potential for fraudulent conduct, CSXT requests ... full and complete discovery regarding each of the remaining plaintiff's claims," according to CSX's motion to dismiss.

Ohio County Circuit Judge Arthur M. Recht is scheduled to consider the motion to dismiss and CSX's request to question railroad workers, as well as the Peirce firm, on Aug. 29.

Call in the Doctor

Former railroad worker Rodney Chambers and 43 other workers sued CSX in 2002, claiming the company exposed them to asbestosis, a debilitating and deadly lung disease that can cause multiple types of cancers. The suit was filed by the Peirce firm and was slated to go to trial in September.

According to court documents, Chambers lived in Huntington and worked for the railroad company since the 1970s. Like other workers suing CSX, Chambers was expected to go to a doctor who would examine him and fill out a medical questionnaire that determined whether the worker had asbestosis.

According to Chambers' questionnaire, Dr. Oscar Frye in Huntington examined the worker on May 14, 2005, and determined he had asbestosis.

The Peirce firm received the completed questionnaire and forwarded copies to CSX and the company's attorneys at Huddleston.

When Huddleston's employees saw that Dr. Frye was supposed to be just a few blocks from their offices in downtown Huntington, they decided to try to locate him. The firm, on behalf of the company, called the state Board of Medicine, state Board of Chiropractic and Board of Osteopathy, and all three said there had never been a medical license issued to anyone named Oscar Frye.

Based on that information, the lawyers and company started to dig around further, court documents say. They called the phone number listed under Frye's address to see whether they could talk to the doctor or his receptionist. Instead, they reached the home of a Huntington woman who has had the number since 1994.

So employees went to the office listed on the medical questionnaire, court documents said. That's when they discovered that not only wasn't there a doctor in the house, there wasn't even a house. The address listed for Dr. Frye -- 1507 Fifth Ave. -- doesn't exist in Huntington.

"The address provided by the plaintiff Chambers for the fictitious Dr. Frye, 1507 Fifth Avenue, does not exist in Huntington, West Virginia, and there is no record that this address has existed since 1954," according to documents filed by CSX's attorneys.

"It is clear ... that Dr. Frye does not exist and that the plaintiff ... has simply concocted a physician to provide the needed medical evidence and support for his asbestosis claim against CSX."

That's not the only problem CSX's attorneys discovered when investigating Chambers' claim, court documents said. When they started looking at Chambers' medical report, they realized the form was identical to several other medical questionnaires received from doctors around the country. The diagnostic forms were identical down to the language used to describe asbestosis and the signs noticed in the different workers, CSX attorneys said.

In fact, the only thing that differed on the forms was the name of the patient being examined and the signature, address and phone number of the examining physician.

The phrase "... my opinion within a reasonable degree of medical certainty is that Mr. (______________) does have asbestosis" was preprinted on each form.

That's a concern to CSX's lawyers, according to court documents. The company and its lawyers worry the Peirce firm "either wittingly or unwittingly created a situation ripe for fraud" by handing out the preprinted questionnaires.

Peirce Pulls Out

CSX alerted the Peirce firm of the problems it had discovered regarding Dr. Frye.

According to court records, the Peirce firm told Chambers to withdraw his claim against the company. The firm also informed the former worker that it no longer could represent him because of "irreconcilable differences."

Recht approved the firm's request to be withdrawn as Chambers' attorney on July 26.

Attorneys with the Peirce firm could not be reached for comment. A message left at the firm's Pittsburgh office was not returned.

However, according to court documents filed by Peirce, Chambers approached the law firm to represent him in a lawsuit against CSX. The firm asked for Chambers' medical records from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Huntington and also had X-rays of Chambers' examined by two separate doctors -- Ray Harron of Bridgeport and Dr. Robert Mazey. Both doctors determined Chambers showed signs of asbestosis.

The lawsuit was filed based on those diagnoses, according to the Peirce documents. The firm also asked Chambers and other claimants to have the preprinted questionnaire taken to their regular family physicians for review.

Chambers took the form to Dr. Frye.

"At no time did any attorney employed (by the Peirce firm) or any employee of (the firm) have any knowledge that Dr. Frye might not be an actual physician," court records state.

The Peirce firm does not challenge CSX's request to dismiss Chambers as a claimant and has encouraged Chambers to file his own motion to dismiss his claim. However, the law firm is fighting CSX's request to question employees of the firm and other asbestosis claimants about how a medical questionnaire was signed by a bogus doctor in the first place.

"CSX Transportation Inc.'s request for 'full and complete discovery' is overly broad and unduly burdensome at this point in time," documents filed by Peirce state. "The basis for dismissal of Mr. Chambers' case, according to CSX Transportation Inc., was that Mr. Chambers concocted a physician by the name of Dr. Oscar Frye and used a report purportedly authored by Dr. Oscar Frye in the prosecution of his case.

"Certainly CSX Transportation should be entitled to know whether or not the physicians provided as treating and/or diagnosing doctors with regard to the other plaintiffs actually exist. However, at this point it is not necessary to depose each plaintiff, each treating physician and each of the physicians who signed diagnosis forms in order to determine whether each plaintiff has presented genuine and authentic material."