April 10, 2008

After receiving "interim fees" of $156 million in 2002, trial lawyers received another $412 million in In re Diet Drugs Monday, just short of $1000/hour for the 578,000 hours billed to the case—assuming that that latter number wasn't as inflated as the number of claims of heart-valve problems from "echo mills." (Shannon P. Duffy, "$412 Million in Attorney Fees Awarded to Plaintiffs Lawyers in Fen-Phen Litigation", The Legal Intelligencer/law.com, Apr. 10). That $568 million figure doesn't include the contingent fees for the billions stolen from Wyeth in opt-out litigation.