A recent Law 360 story by Bill Wichert, “NJ, Texas Law Firms Beat Suit Over Pelvic Mesh Atty Fees,” reports that a New Jersey federal judge nixed a proposed class action against Potts Law Firm, Nagel Rice LLP and other firms over allegedly excessive attorney fees in pelvic mesh litigation against Johnson & Johnson and its Ethicon unit, saying Texas law governed the claims and permitted the fees. U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo granted the firms' motions to dismiss an amended suit from plaintiffs Debbie Gore and Doris Lance-Smith over claims their retainer agreements ran afoul of a New Jersey rule capping contingent fees, noting that the fees were paid as part of settlement awards approved by a special master and a state judge in the Lone Star State.
The Garden State rule "does not apply and the fees awarded to defendants were entirely consistent with Texas law," Judge Arleo said in her written opinion. The fee arrangements allowed the women's lawyers to receive 40% of their settlements, but Texas law has no particular cap on contingent fees, the judge said. Under the New Jersey rule, an attorney can collect a fee of 33.33% of the first $750,000 recovered and then smaller percentages for subsequent amounts, and those fees must be based on the "net sum recovered" after deducting expenses.
Gore and Lance-Smith cited no authority for extending that rule "to litigation settled in a foreign court by out-of-state lawyers representing out-of-state plaintiffs who sustained injuries outside of New Jersey," according to the judge's opinion. Nagel Rice, which is based in New Jersey, did not receive any of the fees in question, but Potts and other Texas firms did, the opinion said.
Gore, a Texas resident, and Lance-Smith, an Alabama resident, both retained Texas firms to pursue claims they suffered injuries from allegedly defective pelvic mesh products, the opinion said. Lance-Smith retained Potts in June 2012 to litigate such claims, the opinion said. The following May, Gore retained a firm then known as Steelman & McAdams PC and partner Annie McAdams to pursue similar claims, the opinion said.
About two months later, Gore agreed to McAdams working and splitting attorney fees with a firm then known as Bailey Perrin Bailey LLP, the opinion said. In July 2014, Gore and Lance-Smith each filed a master short-form complaint in New Jersey state court "as part of the New Jersey iteration of the mesh litigation," the opinion said. Nagel Rice and firm partner Andrew L. O'Connor were listed as the women's attorneys, with Potts and firm partner Derek Potts listed as co-counsel, the opinion said.
Those complaints represent the only connection in the current matter to New Jersey, but beyond them being filed, state dockets indicate that "no litigation activities occurred" and that those matters are now closed, Judge Arleo noted. The settlements and fee awards at issue stem from a master settlement agreement reached in August 2016 between Potts Law Firm, among other firms, and J&J and Ethicon, the judge said. That deal was administered through a Texas state court case, the judge said. Judge Arleo pointed to that Texas link in finding that that state's law governed the proposed class action.
The judge noted that "the complex settlement process, which plaintiffs consented to after ample opportunity for objection, was reached by negotiations between Ethicon and Texas law firms and was administered by the Texas state court and a Texas special master."
"Indeed, no New Jersey law firms or lawyers were even listed as receiving contingency-based attorneys' fees as part of plaintiffs' settlements," the judge said. "As such, the state with the most-significant relationship to the substantive claims at issue is Texas."
Adam M. Slater of Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman LLC, representing Gore and Lance-Smith, on Wednesday said they would appeal the judge's decision. "When a case is filed in New Jersey, the New Jersey Court Rules apply, including the contingency fee rule. According to this decision, the New Jersey contingency fee rule can be easily side stepped, allowing personal injury plaintiffs to be charged 40% contingency fees, in an MDL or any other New Jersey case," Slater told Law360.