By Steven Allen Adams, Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A feud between West Virginia’s top attorney and an anti-lawsuit abuse group continues to play out following the awarding of millions of dollars in outside attorney fees for major cases.
In a report set to be released in the coming days, West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse alleges that state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and his office’s use of outside legal counsel on civil cases resulted in those attorneys receiving approximately $55 million from contingency fees from settlements since 2013.
But Morrisey points to reductions in the percentages of recoveries paid to outside attorneys since taking office a decade ago, from a peak of 40% for one case filed by former Democratic Attorney General Darrell McGraw to as low as 7% for Morrisey’s lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, ensuring more settlement dollars are kept by taxpayers.
The feud between WVCALA and Morrisey began after the awarding of approximately $141 million outside counsel could receive following a class action settlement between the Attorney General’s Office, cities and counties with eight opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies following approval in October by the state’s Mass Litigation Panel. Of that $141 million, outside attorneys for the Attorney General’s Office are set to receive $41 million alone.
Greg Thomas, executive director of WVCALA, said in a statement that these outside counsel contingency fees far exceed the fees outside attorneys received for cases brought by McGraw, who served from 1993 to the end of 2012 after being defeated by Morrisey.
“West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse highlighted the abuses of Darrell McGraw and his outside counsel hiring practices for years,” Thomas said. “There is no way that we could have imagined that the situation would have become worse under Patrick Morrisey, but that is exactly what happened.”
In response, the Attorney General’s Office points to record-breaking settlement dollars secured by the state under Morrisey and the work he has done to ensure that more settlement dollars are kept by the state.
