“Six months after agreeing to a $575 million settlement in a closely watched antitrust case filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Sutter Health has yet to pay a single dollar, and no operational changes have gone into effect. The not-for-profit healthcare giant was accused of using its market dominance in Northern California to illegally drive up prices,” reports Jenny Gold in Modern Healthcare’s Providers.

“Late last week, Sutter’s lawyers filed a motion requesting that Judge Anne-Christine Massullo of the California state Superior Court in San Francisco delay approving the settlement for an additional 90 days, due to “catastrophic” losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Massullo originally was scheduled to rule on the agreement in February, but in April granted an earlier request from Sutter for a 60-day delay in the proceedings.”

“In court documents supporting its request, Sutter argues the pandemic has upended the financial landscape for hospitals and made numerous aspects of the agreement untenable. Last month, Sutter reported an operating loss of $404 million through April, citing declining patient revenue and expenses resulting from the pandemic. System officials said that loss took into account the more than $200 million the system received in COVID-19 relief funds from the federal government via the CARES Act.”

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“Following a jury verdict win on January 24, 2020 of $85.23 million in a damages-only re-trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California (the “Court”), the Court ruled late yesterday on all post-trial motions and entered final judgment in favor of WiLAN, maintaining the full jury verdict and denying Apple’s motions for retrial or lowering the damages award (the “Final Judgment”),” was reported in WiLAN’s news.

“The Court also awarded WiLAN an additional amount of $23.75 million in pre-judgment interest. The total award in the Final Judgment stands at $108.98 million and WiLAN is entitled to post-judgment interest from June 16, 2020 until the date this Final Judgment is satisfied. In addition, as indicated in the Court’s Final Judgment, there are additional royalties for products which Apple released during the pendency of the litigation that will have to be accounted for separately.”

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“The Fourth Court of Appeals of Texas overturned a jury verdict awarding HouseCanary, Inc. (“HouseCanary”) $740 million in damages for trade secret theft and fraud against Title Source, Inc., now known as Amrock,” reports Mena Gaballah, PharmD and Joshua M. Rychlinski in Crowell Moring’s Trade Secrets Trends.

“Amrock and HouseCanary are competitors in the real estate sector. Amrock provides title insurance, property valuations, and settlement services in real estate transactions. HouseCanary is a real estate analytics company that developed software to determine property values. HouseCanary agreed to provide this software to Amrock, and, according to HouseCanary, Amrock reversed engineered it. After the relationship between the two broke down, Amrock sued HouseCanary for breach of contract and fraud, and HouseCanary counterclaimed for breach of contract, fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets, among other claims. The jury found for HouseCanary, awarding it compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney’s fees.”

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“A total of $26.1 million of the $143 million Merrimack Valley gas explosion class-action settlement was earmarked for payment of legal fees and administrative costs,” report Jill Harmacinski in The Eagle-Tribune.

“And yet, some victims are being asked to pay an 11% fee to get their checks, which are compensation for everything from spoiled food and property damage, to lodging costs, mental anguish and other fallout from the Sept. 13, 2018 gas disaster.”

“The first round of checks was recently issued with an average settlement payment of $8,000. Eleven percent of that payment is $880.”

“As of Friday, a spokesperson for Attorney General Maura Healey said the office had heard from eight recipients about the fee being assessed by attorney David Raimondo of the Raimondo Law Firm. Healey’s office is looking into this.”

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“The Law Offices of Jeffrey Lohman has faced some significant setbacks in litigation with Navient purporting that Lohman’s office set up TCPA lawsuits in violation of RICO. While no substantive ruling has been entered in that suit yet, the Court has at least preliminarily found that emails between Lohman and his clients are discoverable pursuant to the crime-fraud exception to the A/C privilege,” reports Eric J. Troutman in

“But Lohman’s office had a better day … in a suit in federal court in Missouri.”

“The Johnson case is quite different from the Navient matter in that it is not a RICO case and does not directly challenge Lohman’s (alleged) conduct of encouraging folks to stop payment to create possible TCPA lawsuits. Rather the suit involves the relationship between Lohman and something called Burlington Financial Group, which allegedly took $2,500.00 from the Plaintiff for debt services it (allegedly) never provided.”

“Lohman’s role in the overall transaction appears to be pretty limited.”

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“Two decades after Florida reached a landmark legal settlement with tobacco companies, an appeals court is slated to hear arguments Tuesday in a dispute about more than $100 million in payments,” reports News Service of Florida in Florida Politics.

“R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. wants the 4th District Court of Appeal to overturn a ruling that said the company is responsible for making payments to the state related to four brands of cigarettes: Salem, Winston, Kool and Maverick.”

“R.J. Reynolds was part of the 1997 settlement in which cigarette makers agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the state because of smoking-related health costs and, in exchange, received liability protections. An R.J. Reynolds parent company in 2015 sold the four cigarette brands to ITG Brands, LLC, which was not part of the settlement. As a result of the sale, R.J. Reynolds contends it is no longer responsible for making payments linked to the four brands.”

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“The bank has asked the U.S. to review demands that any settlement include a guilty plea to a felony charge, according to people briefed on the matter,” reports Matthew Goldstein in The New York Times Business.

“Lawyers for the bank have asked Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to review demands by some federal prosecutors that Goldman pay more than $2 billion in fines and plead guilty to a felony charge…”

“The bank has sought to pay a lower fine and avoid a guilty plea, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are continuing.”

“Authorities in the United States and Malaysia say more than $2.7 billion was diverted from the fund, known as 1MDB, in a scheme that involved the flamboyant financier Jho Low, the country’s former prime minister, and other powerful people. The fund was meant to finance projects for the benefit of the people of Malaysia, but some of the cash went to buy luxury apartments, yachts, paintings and even finance the movie ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.'”

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SmileDirectClub (SDC) “sued NBC in Tennessee federal court seeking more than $2.85 billion. The teledentistry company claims the network made more than 40 false and misleading statements in a February 2020 broadcast of NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt, including that SDC-affiliated doctors aren’t involved in treating patients, that the company’s platform amounts to “do it yourself” dentistry and that it flouts state and federal regulations,” reports Ashley Cullins in The Hollywood Reporter’s Labor.

“SmileDirectClub also alleges NBC was aware of the inaccuracies because the company had sent hundreds of pages of documents about its treatments, made senior officers available for questions, and offered to arrange interviews with dentists, orthodontists and patients. It also alleges that it told the network ‘dental trade associations and organizations have orchestrated a campaign to discredit SDC and, therefore, had a motivation to publish false information about SDC, including regarding the safety of treatment’ and says reporter Vicky Nguyen had a conflict of interest because her husband is an anesthesiologist at a brick-and-mortar oral surgery practice that competes with SDC.”

“SDC is suing for defamation and violation of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act.”

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“HP Inc. will get to keep all the cash, factories and patents Quanta Storage Inc. was ordered to turn over to satisfy a $439 million antitrust judgment from 2019, a federal appeals court ruled,” reported by Laurel Calkins of Bloomberg in Yahoo Finance.

“The Taiwanese disk drive maker was ordered to surrender almost all its assets before its appellate challenge had played out because it failed to post an $85 million bond to prevent early collection of the crippling award. The appellate court did agree to give it more time to comply.”

“‘Quanta risked bet-the-company litigation and lost, so the district court ordered it to hand over the company,’ a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals in New Orleans said Friday in a 21-page ruling.”

“Quanta tried repeatedly in April to delay HP’s push to collect on the judgment. It claimed that coronavirus travel and business restrictions in Taiwan and China, where most of its executives and factories are, prevented it from posting the bond while complying with Taiwanese regulations on asset transfers by publicly traded companies. HP said Quanta was using the pandemic as a ploy to dissipate assets that could be used to satisfy the judgment.”

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“Three Amazon.com Inc. employees at its Staten Island facility have sued the company for the lack of safety measures against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19),” reports Neer Varshney in Benzinga’s News.

“The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for New York’s Eastern District last Wednesday, alleges that the e-commerce giant violated several Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New York state guidelines in its response to the pandemic at the State Island warehouse.”

“The workers have alleged that Amazon discouraged workers from performing basic hygiene like washing or sanitizing hands if it interfered with their work ‘even for a moment.'”

“The Seattle-based company also purposefully concealed information about workers testing positive for COVID-19 from their coworkers at the facility, the lawsuit claims.”

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“Apple will have to face a lawsuit claiming the tech giant fraudulently concealed decreased demand for iPhones, leading to tens of billions of dollars in shareholder losses,” reports Ryan J. Farrick in Legal Reader’s Lawsuits & Litigation.

“According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers trimmed the lawsuit’s scope substantially. But she maintained that shareholders may still sue Apple over Tim Cook’s comments about the iPhone’s robust performance during a November 1^st analyst call.”

“The lawsuit takes particular issue with Cook’s claim that the iPhone was faring well in China through the fourth quarter of 2018, even though sales were struggling due to political tensions.”

“In her ruling, Gonzalez Rogers found it ‘implausible’ that Apple’s chief executive would not know that iPhone demand was dropping in China—especially when, days after the call took place, Apple instructed its largest manufacturers to slow iPhone production.”

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A $5B lawsuit “accuses Google parent company Alphabet Inc. of quietly amassing data about what people do online and what sites they visit while in the private browser mode, ” reports Andy Meek in BGR’s Tech.

“Google promises consumers that they can ‘browse the web privately’ and stay in ‘control of what information [users] share with Google.’ To prevent information from being shared with Google, Google recommends that its consumers need only launch a browser such as Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox in ‘private browsing mode.’ Both statements are untrue.”

“In fact, the language in the suit continues, when users take either or both of those steps, the company ‘continues to track, collect, and identify their browsing data in real-time, in contravention of federal and state laws on wiretapping and in violation of consumers’ rights to privacy.'”

“The size of the proposed class of plaintiffs this action could include numbers in the ‘millions,’ according to the suit, which also seeks at least $5,000 in damages per user for violations of California privacy laws as well as federal wiretapping statutes.”

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“Shortly before COVID-19 halted jury proceedings across the United States, a Mississippi jury sided with the Government to return a $10.8 million verdict against Stone County Hospital and several affiliates for what the jury found were false Medicare claims submitted in violation of the False Claims Act (“FCA”),” reports Siena Caruso in Dorsey & Whitney’s Penalties.

“In May 2007 a complaint was filed alleging the Defendants submitted false records to secure payment under Medicare for services not actually performed and otherwise conspired to submit false claims in violation of the FCA. The Government investigated for nearly eight years before intervening in the lawsuit in 2015.”

“The intervening complaint contained detailed allegations that the Defendants and others abused the special Medicare rules for Critical Access Hospitals from 2004 through 2015 by improperly claiming expenses for work not performed. Such false claims allegedly included the excessive and unwarranted compensation of Mr. Cain—who owned both Stone County Hospital and Corporate Management—as well as claims submitted for Mr. Cain’s personal luxury automobiles. The Government further alleged that Stone County Hospital’s Medicare cost reports misallocated expenses of Corporate Management to the hospital and contained inflated, unnecessary, and duplicative costs purportedly incurred by Corporate Management and related businesses owned by Mr. Cain. The Government alleged the Defendants submitted false records and statements to Medicare seeking reimbursement for these false and fraudulent expenses.”

“After a nine-week trial, a Mississippi jury returned a $10.8 million guilty verdict against Ted Cain, Julie Cain, Stone County Hospital, Corporate Management, and Tommy Kuluz on March 12, 2020. The jury found the sixth defendant—Starann Lamier, the Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Management—not guilty.”

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“Just because information relating to your representation of a client might be publicly available, your duty of confidentiality means that you can’t disclose it if it is not ‘generally known.’ The two concepts — public availability and being ‘generally known’ — are not the same, as a New Jersey lawyer learned earlier this month when the state supreme court imposed a one-year suspension in a disciplinary case that (among other things) involved a Yelp review,” reports Karen Rubin in Thompson Hine’s in The Law for Lawyers Today Confidentiality.

“According to the disciplinary board’s decision, the lawyer represented a client in a child custody matter and achieved a ‘seemingly good result’ via settlement. Over a year later, however, the client posted ‘poor reviews’of the lawyer’s services on several websites. In turn, as set out in the board decision, the lawyer posted a review of the client’s massage business on Yelp, where he said that the client ‘is a convicted felon for fleeing the state with children. A wonderful parent. Additionally, she has been convicted of shoplifting from a supermarket. Hide your wallets well during a massage. Ooops, almost forgot about the DWI conviction. Well maybe a couple of beers during a massage would be nice.'”

“After the client complained, the lawyer sought to explain his actions, according to the board decision. He admitted he was ‘very upset’ by the client’s negative Yelp rating of his practice, and felt that his response was justified because ‘what was good for the goose was good for the gander.'”

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Agreement ensures funds will benefit victims of opioid epidemic 

 TYLER, Texas – A landmark agreement between the Texas Attorney General’s office and a group of Texas counties and cities impacted by the country’s opioid epidemic paves the way for future settlement money to be directed to rural communities battling the crisis, lawyers with Tyler-based Martin Walker said Friday. 

 “This agreement is historic in that combining efforts with the Texas Attorney General’s office strengthens our position immensely and gives us one united and powerful voice,” said Martin Walker attorney Reid Martin. “But it also allows us to learn the lessons of settlements past. After the Big Tobacco settlement in the 1990s, we saw that many of the funds never made it to those who needed it most. This agreement will prevent that from happening. We know that the money will go to fund opioid addiction treatment, help impacted communities and ultimately save lives.” 

The Martin Walker legal team represents 29 counties in opioid litigation in Texas, most in east and northeast Texas. 

Under the agreement announced by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, state and county representatives will be included in all negotiations currently underway with opioid drug distributors and manufacturers. In the event of a settlement, the agreement creates an allocation structure that guarantees state and local governments will each receive a 15 percent share of the funds. The remaining 70 percent will be administered by the Texas Opioid Council to be dispersed to treatment programs operated by 20 regional health care partnerships across Texas. 

“This agreement is the result of years of hard work, and we are proud to see that our own Smith County has held a leadership role in the negotiations,” said Martin Walker attorney Jack Walker. “This agreement ensures that Tyler’s medical facilities, which serve all of East Texas, will get the funds they need to help in the fight against opioid addiction.”  

 Martin Walker PC is a Tyler-based law firm with significant trial expertise representing individuals and businesses in high-stakes litigation, including medical malpractice, catastrophic injuries involving 18-wheeler accidents, oilfield injuries, wrongful death, and product liability.

For more information visit Martin Walker Law

“Attorney General Maura Healey has reached a $380,000 settlement with a Canton-based building contractor accused of falsely claiming they had hired minority- and women-owned subcontractors as required on a $15 million dollar state project,” reports Paul Singer and Chris Burrell in WGBH’s local news.

“The company, ENE Systems, Inc. — a systems engineering firm that has worked on major building projects across the region — denies any wrongdoing, and said it tried to meet the hiring goals, but it agreed to pay $300,000, give up another $81,000 remaining on the contract and conduct an annual review of its own compliance with state requirements for hiring minorities and women. The settlement is the seventh “false claims” case brought by the AG’s office over the past decade against companies accused of failing to meet minority hiring commitments, and is the second largest. Six of these cases have been brought by a new false claims division created by Healey in 2015.”

“Earlier this year, an investigation by WGBH’s New England Center for Investigative Reporting showed that minority-owned businesses — black owned businesses in particular — receive only a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars state agencies spend each year on contractors, and their share of state contracts and discretionary agency spending has declined over the past 20 years.”

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“Investors suffering losses from Bayer’s Roundup legal woes are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, as the German conglomerate is said to be nearing a final settlement that could put tens of thousands of lawsuits behind it,” reports Angus Liu in FiercePharma’s Pharma.

“Bayer has reached verbal agreements with a large proportion of about 125,000 U.S. plaintiffs who allege Roundup causes cancer as part of a $10 billion plan to end all legal claims around the weedkiller, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the negotiations.”

“Wrapping up the legal battle at $10 billion would be a win for Bayer, as it has lost $30 billion in market value since the Monsanto buyout, through which it inherited Roundup.”

“So far, Bayer has lost all three trials that ended with combined $191 million in damages, though the company is still fighting them in appeals court.”

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“An Iowa lawyer described as a ‘superb advocate’ has been suspended for overbilling the state public defender for her legal services and car mileage,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s Daily News.

“Lawyer Jennifer Meyer was well regarded, but her billing practices require a one-year suspension, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a May 15 opinion.”

“Meyer provided services to the state public defender as a contract attorney. She billed the agency for more than 24 hours in a day on 30 different days, according to an audit spanning four years. During the same period, Meyer had duplicated reimbursement requests for mileage, attributing trips to a location to multiple clients 147 times.”

“Before the grievance commission, Meyer consistently argued that she did the legal work and was entitled to payment, despite billing irregularities. She often worked beyond customary hours and on weekends, she said.”

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