Another strong reaction from the bench to scorched-earth practices in litigation:
A Massachusetts U.S. District Court judge fined Medtronic Sofamor Danek Inc. and related companies $10 million for the behavior of its trial lawyers at Dewey & LeBoeuf while fighting a patent case brought by DePuy Spine Inc.
Senior District Judge Edward F. Harrington also ordered Medtronic Sofamor, which makes spinal implant devices, to pay some of the plaintiffs’ attorney fees. …
“The defendants prolonged the proceedings unnecessarily (thus unduly imposing upon the jury’s time), they sought to mislead both the jury and the Court, and they flouted the governing claim construction as set forth by the Federal Circuit,” Harrington wrote.
(Sheri Qualters, National Law Journal, Feb. 28).
3 Comments
Shouldn’t that fine go to the LAWYER? I mean, the whole point of lawyers is that they know the law…
If I were in a lawsuit, there’s all kinds of things that might occur to me to do, and I might suggest many of them to my lawyer. My lawyer’s job would be to represent me WITHIN THE LAW, and, as such, he should tell me when my suggestions are illegal, against the lawyer’s code of ethics, etc.
Oh, I imagine that lawyer (or his firm) will receive the appropriate desert. But it won’t be via fines. He likely lost a major client. How much sting will that have over the next three, five, or ten years?
According to Yahoo, their market cap is $55B, on $13B in sales. How much of the $13B goes to litigation? How much can D&L expect to collect going forward? How long does it take a firm to land such a client?
I don’t see enough evidence of defense counsels’ sins to get worked up here. Anyone have a specific example of Dewey & LeBoeuf being bad? I don’t do patent and I don’t know what “governing claim construction is,” but “imposing on the jury’s time”? Isn’t that what plaintiffs do by bringing the lawsuit?
Overlawyered sidenote: I bet these oh-so-valuable spine surgery devices spring from the increasingly profitable business of spine surgery, which provides a great source of income for both doctors and lawyers, regardless of the actual need for it.
I am telling you, there is a major scandal in America having to do with naturally-occurring “bulging discs” being deemed injury-caused. The NYT has had some good coverage on the issue of unnecessary spine surgery — and even doctors who unethically hold business interests in spine-surgery equipment makers, but some enterprising journalist should really look into this.