WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A law firm spending millions of dollars on advertising for Camp Lejeune clients is unhappy with a marketing firm it hired and is now suing it in D.C. federal court.
Keller Postman stands to make more than $100 million from its representation of the State of Texas in a lawsuit that led to a $1.4 billion settlement but wants the $175,000 it paid to PPC Squared Digital Marketing back. It sued the company July 16.
Camp Lejeune ads dominate television spending by plaintiff lawyers. In June, they spent $3.1 million on ads after $6.3 million in May, according to figures compiled by the research firm X Ante.
The possibly lucrative contaminated water claims target the federal government, which did plaintiff lawyers a solid when it allowed them to take whatever percentage of recoveries they wanted.
Claims against the federal government were subject to a 25% contingency fee cap but the 2022 Pact Act removed it. The law covers anyone who spent more than 30 days at Camp Lejeune between 1953 to 1987 and has since contracted any of a number of diseases including cancer.
Since more than 300,000 vets have filed claims 3M over military earplugs, lawyers anticipate Camp Lejeune litigation might become one of the biggest mass torts ever with a half-million claimants.
Cases will be heard in a North Carolina federal court. X Ante says since 2022, there have been nearly 460,000 TV ads at an estimated cost of $187 million.
In October 2022 and March 2023, Keller Postman bought about 900 ads for about $3 million, X Ante says. Here's an example of its advertising.
Keller Postman managing partner Warren Postman met PPC2 owner Jarred Johnson at a conference in July 2023, and the two sides struck a deal six days later. Keller Postman gave PPC2 $175,000, from which 85% of that was to be spent on digital advertising. The remaining was PPC2's compensation.
Two ad campaigns are mentioned in the agreement - Camp Lejeune and single-event personal injury - but nothing happened, the suit says. And requests for a refund were unsuccessful, it adds.
"Mr. Johnson initially acknowledged Defendants' obligation under the Contract to return the unused funds, but stated that he no longer had the money, apparently because he had appropriated the full $175,000 for his own use," the suit says.
"Mr. Johnson stated that he would work to return the full amount at some unspecified time in the future, but if Plaintiff insisted on a prompt refund, Defendants would declare bankruptcy."
PPC2 was tasked with content creation and placement, media reporting and client intake.