PENSACOLA, Fla. (Legal Newsline) – Facing hundreds of thousands of lawsuits over its ear plugs, 3M has successfully argued for a look inside the machine that generates these and other mass tort claims.
Judge Casey Rodgers, the Pensacola, Fla., judge overseeing more than 200,000 ear plug lawsuits in her federal courtroom, on March 12 granted 3M’s motion to enforce a subpoena on a website called Top Class Actions.
TCA’s site includes lawyer advertisements, articles on products at issue in mass torts and contact forms that put prospective plaintiffs in touch with lawyers.
TCA had refused to give up the information 3M is seeking by claiming those forms were protected by privilege, but 3M argued the site did not provide legal services – only referrals. Lawyers leading the MDL backed TCA’s argument.
“The problem for MDL Plaintiffs is that the nature of the ‘common interest’ between the advertising attorneys and TCA was solely commercial, not legal,” Rodgers wrote.
“That is, TCA’s role was to advertise for paying attorneys, not to assist them in litigation against the MDL Defendants. TCA does not have any legal interest in the MDL Plaintiffs’ litigation, and the MDL Defendants are not an adversary to TCA.”
TCA doesn’t review the content of the form submissions and is not in position to discuss litigation strategy, Rodgers added.
“In sum, the communications between TCA and advertising attorneys… do not enjoy work-product protection and must be disclosed to the MDL defendants,” Rodgers wrote.
3M’s original subpoena sought:
-Documents related to submissions to TCA’s website;
-Documents relating to the advertising directed to prospective plaintiffs;
-Communications between plaintiffs firms and TCA relating to prospective plaintiffs;
-Documents relating to the referral of prospective plaintiffs; and
-Documents regarding any financial interest or ownership any plaintiffs law firm has in TCA.