Fen-Phen Settlement - trial ordered
|
The law firm that negotiated the settlement with a diet drug manufacturer has been ordered to stand trial amid allegations of impropriety over the way in which its share of the settlement was increased.
A law firm that negotiated a huge settlement with the makers of the diet drug fen-phen has been ordered to stand trial over whether it manipulated the deal in a way that increased the lawyers' share of the money.
State Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos said Wednesday he was ordering a trial because of questions about whether the firm, Napoli Bern Ripka LLP, violated ethical rules in apportioning shares of the settlement money.
Napoli Bern sued drug maker American Home Products in 2001 on behalf of more than 5,000 of the 6 million former users of fen-phen, which the Food and Drug Administration had recalled after studies showed it might cause heart valve damage.
The law firm settled with American Home, though the amount and terms of the settlement were confidential. The New York Law Journal has reported that the amount has been estimated to exceed $1 billion.
Napoli Bern's lawyer Anthony Gentile said the judge was wrong to order a trial.
"There was never any evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever," he said. "There have been no allegations of wrongdoing from any of the clients. Not one."
In ordering the trial, Ramos cited an affidavit by Stephen David Murakami, a former Napoli Bern lawyer who said the firm lied to clients about how their shares of the settlement had been determined.
Murakami alleged that a major factor in a client's share was whether he or she had retained Napoli Bern directly at the outset or had been referred by another firm, the ruling said.
"Claimants who were Napoli firm clients were offered disproportionately larger settlements because the firm unfairly inflated settlement offers for its clients so that the attorneys' fees earned by the firm would be greater," the judge quoted Murakami's affidavit as saying.
Napoli Bern said the settlement had been inspected for fairness by a former law school professor and a former New York state judge, but Ramos said he could not tell from the record whether the law firm had been forthright with them.
American Home made the "fen" in the drug cocktail fen-phen, a drug called fenfluramine. It sold the drug under the brand name Pondimin along with a chemical cousin called Redux.
© X-Pro 2007
|
|
