GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Legal Newsline) - The exact details of Michigan’s proposed $600 million settlement of lawsuits over the Flint water crisis won’t be revealed for at least another one or two months as lawyers, some of whom were hired by the State and will likely be seeking tens of millions in fees, work out the details.
The timetable for the settlement, which could ultimately reward private lawyers with more than $100 million in fees, emerged during an online hearing before U.S. District Judge Judith E. Levy, who is overseeing federal litigation over the contamination of Flint’s municipal water supply.
Michigan announced the tentative agreement last week, after lawyers accused a state-appointed Flint emergency manager of overseeing a botched shift of the water supply from Detroit to a previously mothballed municipal plant on the Flint River (they also battled each other for control of the litigation). Tens of thousands of Flint residents were exposed to higher lead levels after the city’s aging pipe system corroded and state health officials delayed warnings.
Plaintiff lawyers are still suing other defendants including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and outside engineering firms that advised Flint on the project. The delayed filing of final settlement papers could give them time to negotiate additional agreements with those defendants. The final settlement terms must be approved by the court.
In an indication acrimony among lawyers that has marked the litigation from the start has not ended, Judge Levy said lawyers are getting calls from clients and non-clients about how to participate in the settlement. She called for a census of potential claimants, saying she had “concern about people who are represented maybe calling someone who isn’t their lawyer.”
The settlement will be open to anybody who files a claim, regardless of which case they belong to or even if they have filed no lawsuit, the judge said. The bulk of the money is designated for young children who may have suffered permanent brain damage from lead exposure.