Reply #38: A word about ambulance-chasing shysters [View All]

Our office isn't handling any VIOXX claims, but it looks like it will be extraordinarily difficult to prosecute these products liability lawsuits. Bringing a lawsuit of this nature costs a minimum of $100,000 out of pocket for the attorney, and those costs don't get reimbursed by the client, who is either too sick to work anymore or too dead to care about costs. Meanwhile, those costs are treated by the IRS as "receivables" and are taxed like any other business loan for as many years as the costs are outstanding. Wow, I can't imagine why every lawyer in the country isn't running to sign up for firm-busting costs that may never be reimbursed and are taxable events!

Not to mention the amount of attorney time devoted to researching and interviewing patients, relatives, experts, doctors and everyone else tangentially involved in such a matter means less time to spend on other cases. For the 500 hours a lawyer might spend in a year on one VIOXX-related matter that may or may not pan out, that's time not spent on a case with a better chance of winning. No money comes in when you aren't working other cases.

In addition to the time and expenses, deceased patients probably have a medical history of difficulties, and tracing the cause of their particular deaths to taking VIOXX will be very hard. All the best doctors are lined up on the side of the pharmaceutical companies, and the most knowledgeable folks about any potential side effects will have already been paid by the company for their input and expertise, and will thus not be available to the estate of the dead person for testimony. There may be a statistical correlation based on the percentages of persons taking VIOXX and deaths from heart disease, but proving an individual's demise was due to VIOXX and nothing else is a pretty tricky proposition.

While a billboard may be unseemly or distasteful, medical records are not readily available to the public, and state bar associations uniformly have rules against "soliciting" clients - that is, contacting people on the chance that they might have a claim. Despite Hollywood depictions to the contrary, one of the fastest ways for a lawyer to get his bar ticket pulled is to call on someone directly. It's up to someone who has been civilly wronged to decide to contact an attorney. If someone you loved had died while on VIOXX, how would you know or even find out about any legal recourse?