A recent Houston Chronicle story, “Ex-Clients Sue Lawyer Over Diet Drug Settlement” reports that ten former clients have sued George M. Fleming of Fleming & Associates, LLP in Houston.  Fleming represented plaintiffs in the Fen-Phen class action against pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in 2006.  The former clients allege they learned after their settlements that approximately 8,100 claimants represented by Fleming were assessed the cost of giving echocardiograms to 35,000 people who were rejected as clients because the tests shows they suffered no ill effects from taking the combination diet drug.  The former clients claim the tests cost them $23 million.

In court, former Fleming associate Jim Doyle testified that Fleming was unhappy that so much effort had netted the lawyers only $41 million in fees and expenses.  “He said he had worked too long and too hard for a lousy $41 million,” said Doyle, who left the firm after objecting to Fleming’s unusual decision to include non-client expenses among those billed to clients.

This is not the first time clients have raised concern over Fleming’s attorney fees.  In the 1990s, Fleming represented thousands of homeowners who sued manufactures of a defective plastic pipe.  Fleming said he was owed about two-thirds of the $170 million settlement, but a state judge reduced his fees from 40 percent to 20 percent, claiming that Fleming had inflated the value of replacement plumbing his clients received as part of the settlement.