Contrary to some expectations, Philadelphia juries have not been proving a soft touch for “opt-out” plaintiffs who’ve journeyed there from around the country to sue drugmakers over alleged side effects from the diet-drug compound. One recent jury awarded a mere $4,000 to five women from Utah after a three-week trial, and another returned an outright defense verdict in a case brought by four Philadelphia women. Most of the plaintiffs exhibit heart murmurs and other subtle heart irregularities which they contend were brought on by the use of Pondimin and Redux, but a plaintiff’s lawyer says their case is weakened because most display no symptoms and are not under a doctor’s care for the claimed irregularities. “They don’t have treating doctors who will back up their stories,” agrees a lawyer for Wyeth. “The juries aren’t buying it.” (L. Stuart Ditzen, “Diet-drug lawsuits netting slim payoffs”, Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 16). For more on fen-phen, see Jan. 25, Jan. 6 and links from there; Apr. 28 ($1 billion verdict in Texas for fatality claimed to be linked to drug).
Posts Tagged ‘fen-phen’
In the Kerry skyboxes
Unlike his running mate John Edwards, John Kerry has willingly disclosed the identities of his “bundlers”, the financiers responsible for raising large amounts of money in grouped donations. (He has 266 who’ve come in at the $100,000+ level, compared with more than 525 for George W. Bush.) Names familiar to readers of this site are well represented: “Trial lawyers who represent injured people in suits against business are prominent Kerry fans. Among his $100,000 Vice Chairmen are Florida plaintiff’s lawyer Kirk Wager, who hosted Mr. Kerry’s first presidential fund-raiser at his Coconut Grove home in December 2002, and attorneys Richard Scruggs of Mississippi and John Coale of Washington, both part of the tobacco companies’ $206 billion settlement with 46 states.” However, Mr. Kerry (like Mr. Bush, but unlike Mr. Edwards) also raises large amounts from other types of law firms, including firms known for lobbying and for general business work, including Mintz Levin and Piper Rudnick. (Wayne Slater, “Vested interests in Kerry”, Dallas Morning News, Jul. 25).
“Lawyers, especially trial lawyers, are the engine of the Kerry fundraising operation,” reports the Washington Post. “Lawyers and law firms have given more money to Kerry, $12 million, than any other sector. One out of four of Kerry’s big-dollar fundraisers is a lawyer, and one out of 10 is an attorney for plaintiffs in personal injury, medical malpractice or other lawsuits seeking damages. …
“Among the trial lawyers who raised money for Kerry early in the campaign were Michael V. Ciresi of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, who represented Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota in its successful $6.5 billion suit against the tobacco industry, and Michael T. Thorsnes, who recently retired from his San Diego law firm after winning $250 million in settlements and verdicts.” After Kerry locked up the race, “One trend was a sharp increase in the number of trial lawyers joining the Kerry fundraising campaign. Among those soon joining as major fundraisers were John P. Coale, one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers, whose better-known cases include the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, and at least 16 plane crashes; Robert L. Lieff, founding partner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, a San Francisco-based firm that lists four class-action settlements in 2004 alone totaling $176.5 million; and San Francisco lawyer Arnold Laub, whose firm Web site lists its participation in the $3.7 billion fen-phen settlement, a $185 million toxic chemical award and $4.5 million for a pedestrian accident case. … John Morgan, an Orlando lawyer whose firm specializes in medical malpractice, said he has helped raise more than $500,000 for Kerry.” (Thomas B. Edsall, James V. Grimaldi and Alice R. Crites, “Redefining Democratic Fundraising”, Washington Post, Jul. 24)(our politics archive).
John O’Quinn for Texas governor?
The Houston-based mass tort specialist, who has long played a prominent role in these columns for his exploits in asbestos, tobacco, silicone implants and most recently fen-phen (Apr. 28, Feb. 26 and many more), is now being talked of by activists as a potential Democratic candidate for governor of the Lone Star State. (W. Gardner Selby, “Democrats appear to be in no rush to challenge Perry for governorship”, San Antonio Express-News, Jun. 15). One factor helpful to him: last fall (see GregsOpinion.com, Oct. 25) Texas Democrats elected as their chairman San Marcos attorney Charles Soechting, who happens to practice at none other than the law firm of O’Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle.
Judge OKs $1 billion fen-phen verdict
The Rule of Lawyers: the softcover edition
If you enjoy this website, and especially if you want to learn more about the “big” lawsuit campaigns that generate fortunes for lawyers and tag industries with billions in liability, you would probably enjoy my book The Rule of Lawyers, which got a fair bit of attention when it was published last year. Now St. Martin’s, the publisher, has come out with a new softcover edition, just now posted on Amazon at an attractively priced $10.47. It includes a newly written epilogue in which I discuss major developments of the last year such as the fast-food litigation, the enactment of comprehensive tort reform in Texas, and the surprise move by the ABA to support reform of asbestos and class-action litigation, as well as the latest twists in gun, tobacco, fen-phen and lead paint courtroom battles, among others.
The hardcover edition of The Rule of Lawyers continues to be available here and seems to be a popular gift for Father’s Day and for new graduates, law school or otherwise. The Manhattan Institute maintains a site that compiles publicity about the book, related op-eds, etc. As for the spanking new softcover, the publisher tells me that the first copies will be in hand today, and that it will ship later this month. Its back cover is graced with an excerpt from Robert Lenzner’s rave review of the book for Forbes.com, in which he calls it: “A truly gripping read about tort lawyers … a brilliant expose of the way courts are being overwhelmed by mass tort actions.” (& thanks to David Giacalone for (end of item) his kind words).
CNBC “Kudlow & Cramer” tonight
I’m scheduled to be a guest on CNBC’s popular “Kudlow & Cramer” business talk show this evening, live from New York between 5 and 6 EDT (probably around 45 minutes after the hour). I’ll be discussing the recent $1 billion fen-phen verdict in Texas (see Apr. 28), as well as mass tort and class action litigation generally. My book “The Rule of Lawyers”, which discusses all these topics and was published by St. Martin’s last year, is available through Amazon here.
Fen-phen: O’Quinn extracts $1 billion from Beaumont jury
“A jury awarded $1 billion to the family of a woman who once took the Wyeth-made diet drug Pondimin, part of the now-banned weight-loss combination fen-phen.” Cynthia Cappel-Coffey, who died last year at 41 of primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH), did not develop symptoms of PPH until more than four years after using the Wyeth drug. According to Bill Sims, a lawyer for Wyeth, the Beaumont judge refused to allow the company to introduce evidence that Cappel-Coffey had taken four other diet drugs in the intervening years, although all four of the other drugs warn of a risk of PPH. Wyeth has already set aside nearly $17 billion for fen-phen litigation. (“Jury awards $1 billion to family of woman whose death was connected to diet drug”, AP/Court TV, Apr. 28; Reed Abelson and Jonathan D. Glater, “Texas Jury Rules Against the Maker of Fen-Phen, a Diet Drug”, New York Times, Apr. 28; Tony Freemantle, “Beaumont jury awards $1 billion in diet drug suit”, Houston Chronicle, Apr. 28). (More: Texas Lawyer). For more on fen-phen litigation, see Jan. 25, Jan. 6, Aug. 19 and links from there. For more on Beaumont, that very special jurisdiction, see Jul. 31 and many more. And for more on attorney John O’Quinn, a frequent source of material for this page, see Feb. 26 and many more.
Foiled our son’s school-shooting plan? We’ll sue
This February, Sacramento and Elk Grove police arrested two 15-year-olds who were allegedly planning a Columbine-style attack at their high school. After a tip from a fellow student, they found evidence that the two had attempted to burglarize a sporting goods store for weapons, and one of the them had admitted to his father and others that he intended to shoot black students.
They’ve been rewarded with a $6 million claim that is the precursor to a lawsuit. The school district is being blamed for failing to provide adequate counseling in advance of the incident, and the Sacramento police are being sued for their comments on the case. “Either the police and now the DA have made a mistake on the hate-crime motivation, or the minor is lying to his parents and to me,” the lawyer, J. Jeffries Goodwin of the law firm California Fen-Phen Litigation Associates, explained. (Ramon Coronado and Gwendolyn Crump, “Accused student is called victim”, Sacramento Bee, Feb. 19; Ramon Coronado, “Students face racial charges”, Sacramento Bee, Mar. 2; Sam Stanton, Emily Bazar and Michael Kolber, “Plan to attack school alleged”, Sacramento Bee, Feb. 11) (via Jacobs).
Fen-phen: the plot thickens
Medical Economics on fen-phen
Cover story explores the allegations against two cardiologists who assisted plaintiff’s firms in filing fen-phen cases (see Nov. 30, Sept. 25, Sept. 21), and includes responses/explanations from the doctors themselves. Also check out the sidebar item recounting the experience of a fen-phen user who got hustled through one law firm’s “hotel room echo” operation and was told she had serious heart damage, but had a devil of a time trying to extract details or a copy of the echo report from the lawyers’ cardiologist. Finally she consulted a different cardiologist who did an echocardiogram and told her not to worry, her heart was fine (Berkeley Rice, “Do these doctors give medicine a black eye?”, Medical Economics, Dec. 19) (via LitiGator)