Daniel Fisher News
Tort reform group slams 'referral fee' for W. Va. opioid lawyer, hopes lawmakers will investigate
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - A West Virginia tort reform organization is calling on lawmakers to investigate $141 million in fees being distributed to private lawyers involved in government opioid lawsuits after one attorney sued to collect referral fees for connecting lawyers with municipal officials.
Opioid lawyer fee fight breaks into open in West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - A West Virginia lawyer has sued prominent national firm Morgan & Morgan, claiming he was shortchanged out of $1.6 million in fees stemming from a $940 million opioid settlement.
Parents can sue over baby's death they blame on 911 dispatcher
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - The parents of a five-week-old infant can sue a West Virginia county for what they claim is a 911 dispatcher’s bad advice to drive the baby to a hospital instead of waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
PFAS makers fight lawsuits as government still requires its use
CHARLESTON, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - Companies that made firefighting foam that can release trace amounts of the “forever chemical” PFAS are hoping a federal judge will dismiss thousands of lawsuits against them based on the government contractor defense, or as one defense lawyer puts it, “the government made me do it.”
Judge refuses mistrial in key opioid case despite jury shenanigans
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - The judge overseeing a landmark opioid lawsuit against the nation’s largest pharmacy chains refused to declare a mistrial after a juror performed her own research on a topic plaintiff lawyers raised in cross-examination and shared her results with the rest of the jury.
Opioid judge threatens to abandon MDL process for pharmacies if they don't settle
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - The judge overseeing federal multidistrict opioid litigation said a proposed bellwether trial against Walmart, Walgreens and other pharmacy chains is going off the rails and he might suspend the whole process, sending thousands of cases back to the courts where they originated.
Biden and DEA could clash on crime, marijuana, open borders
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - President Joe Biden hasn’t identified a candidate for permanent director of the Drug Enforcement Administration and it may be a long time before he does. The agency responsible for prosecuting the nation’s war on drugs is trapped on its own political battlefield as it faces criticism over its failure to contain the spread of deadly opioids while continuing to enforce a federal ban on marijuana that is opposed by White House officials and politicians on the left and right.
Opioid judge threatens pharmacies with bankruptcy if they don't settle
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - As multidistrict litigation swamps federal courts, the judge overseeing the multibillion-dollar opioid MDL demonstrated why plaintiff lawyers love the strategy so much: Because it is extremely effective at extracting settlements from the companies they sue.
Attorneys general take $15M from McKinsey opioid settlement for their professional association
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A $574 million settlement between the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm and state attorneys general includes a $15 million payment to their professional group, the National Association of Attorneys General.
Opioid judge has second thoughts, rejects class of drug-addicted infants
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - The federal judge who approved a nationwide class of plaintiffs to try to settle opioid litigation appears to have had a change of heart when it comes to a nationwide class of parents caring for children who were born addicted to narcotics.
DuPont, Chemours, Corteva agree to split expected $4 billion PFAS settlement costs
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - DuPont has agreed to split an expected $4 billion litigation bill over the environmentally pervasive chemical PFAS with Chemours and Corteva, former business units that DuPont spun out in 2015 and 2019.
Lawyers leading opioid litigation to negotiate their payday; Judge rejects request for 7%
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Saying it is almost inevitable they will negotiate their own slice of a multibillion-dollar settlement before it is done, the judge overseeing federal multidistrict opioid litigation refused to order the parties to set aside a set percentage to pay the fees of plaintiff lawyers leading the MDL.
While they wait on opioid jackpot, plaintiffs firms take federal loans during pandemic
Law firms leading multidistrict litigation against the opioid industry have borrowed as much as $102 million under the federal Paycheck Protection Program designed to preserve jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The law firms said the loans were needed to pay some 3,000 employees.
Pharmacies ask appeals court to remove judge from opioid MDL
CINCINNATI (Legal Newsline) - Pharmacies have asked the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to remove the judge overseeing federal multidistrict opioid litigation, saying he has injected himself too far into the process by dictating which claims plaintiffs should file and appointing himself to decide the key issue of public nuisance in an upcoming bellwether trial.
Study: Class action lawyers often take more money from settlements than class members
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A detailed examination of eight years of consumer class actions in federal court found that consumers received only a tiny fraction of the money awarded in those cases while plaintiff lawyers frequently claimed a bigger share of the settlement than their clients.
Even homeowners could be in danger of lawyers trying to cash in on coronavirus
They’ve already sued cruise ship operators, soap manufacturers and insurance companies, but COVID-19 will give entrepreneurial lawyers plenty more opportunities to make money by targeting nursing homes, hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, retailers and possibly even homeowners over the disease.
Politically generous lawyers poised to take billions from opioid settlement
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Their request for some $3 billion in fees has generated fierce resistance from state attorneys general and defendants, but don’t worry about the financial states of private lawyers who represent thousands of municipal plaintiffs in opioid litigation.
Johnson & Johnson claims FDA's new asbestos testing based on 'faulty assumptions'
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson says a Food and Drug Administration panel charged with designing new standards for detecting asbestos in talc used “faulty assumptions” and failed to reflect scientific consensus in its draft recommendations.
Plaintiff lawyers and their experts push FDA panel to expand definition of asbestos; Pills, chewing gum among products possibly affected
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A fierce behind-the-scenes conflict is growing as law firms that specialize in asbestos litigation urge the Food and Drug Administration to broaden the definition of mineral particles believed to cause disease while industry representatives try to make it narrower.
DEA again cuts opioid production as companies facing addiction lawsuits put blame on feds
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The Drug Enforcement Administration has slashed oxycodone production quotas by almost 60% from the peak in 2013, including a 9% cut for this year, demonstrating the government’s firm control over narcotics distribution even as plaintiffs in opioid litigation blame pharmacies and drug distributors for causing addiction and overdose deaths by selling too many pills.