GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Legal Newsline) – Prominent personal injury firms should lose their leadership positions in the Flint, Mich., water crisis litigation, a lawyer involved in the litigation is arguing as he complains they are trying to "corner the market" on compensation to boost their fees.
On Oct. 27, Valdemar Washington of Washington Legal asked U.S. District Judge Judith Levy to strip attorneys from Levy Konigsberg and Hunter Shkolnik of their roles as co-liaison counsel. Washington did this as the details – including attorneys fees - of a $600 million settlement with the State are worked out.
His complaint started with an infomercial that he says raised questions about whether the level of lead in a child’s body will affect the amount he or she would receive in the settlement. He is worried about the two firms’ ability to perform lead bone tests while other lawyers are stuck testing blood for lead.
“Co-Liaison Counsel have breached their fiduciary duties to the other plaintiffs and their counsel by inserting, or allowing the insertion of a requirement (in the settlement) to measure lead levels in the children,” Washington says.
“Such actions have allowed Co-Liaison Counsel to corner the market to the benefit of Co-Liaison Counsel on the only means to test for current lead levels in injured children. Blood lead level testing, which is widely available, is unreliable after approximately one month.”
The settlement, which could reward lawyers with more than $100 million in fees, was announced in August but has not been finalized and released to the public.
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.
Washington, a former judge in Genessee County, filed a discrimination lawsuit that claimed Flint leaders provided state employees with clean drinking water while Flint residents were left to deal with contamination.
The lawsuit said state employees were using purified water coolers as they argued Flint water was safe to drink.
Washington says Corey Stern of Levy Konigsberg revealed in the infomercial that lead testing will be a factor in how much claimants will get in the settlement – “Parents over the next few months will be able to submit claims on behalf of their children and depending on what the evidence is, about how the child was impacted by lead will dictate what type of resolution each child gets. The most damaged children in Flint are going to get the highest value resolution...”
After, Hill Harper of Napoli Shkolnik said the firms are using “pioneering technology to do a lead bone test.”
Though a special master admitted on Oct. 26 that lead bone testing will be a part of the settlement, Washington says he has not been told that it will be available to all claimants, including the people he represents.
“The joint venture infomercial soliciting new clients while in possession of confidential information not available to plaintiffs’ counsel is in direct conflict with (the co-liaison appointment order) which required them to ‘Keep the other plaintiffs’ counsel advised of the progress of the litigation and consult them about decisions significantly affecting their clients,’” Washington’s lawsuit says.
Rather than sign a non-disclosure agreement and receive the compensation grid, Washington instead filed the motion to punish Stern and Hunter Shkolnik. In addition to removing them from their positions, Washington is asking for unspecified sanctions.