A recent AP story, “Arkansas Judge Affirms $181 Million in Legal Fees,” reports that an Arkansas judge says Johnson & Johnson must pay $181 million in attorney fees to attorneys who successfully argued that the pharmaceutical company committed Medicaid fraud in the marketing of its antipsychotic drug Risperdal.  The case was brought by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel through outside lawyers, Houston-based law firm Bailey Perrin Bailey.

Pulaski County Judge Tim Fox ruled Thursday that Arkansas taxpayers should not foot the bill in the lawsuit filed last year by the state’s attorney general.  Last year, a jury found that Johnson & Johnson, through its Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary, had committed Medicaid fraud and violated the state’s deceptive trade practice act.  Assessing a $5,000 fine for each Risperdal presciption added up to a $1.2 billion verdict.  The attorney fees are a 15 percent contingency fee that Attorney General Dustin agreed to pay the law firm.

Johnson & Johnson had argued that legal fees of $2.2 million to $3.8 million would be appropriate.  A Janssen spokeswoman tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that company maintains it did not violate the state’s Medicaid fraud law and that no legal fees should have been ordered.