A nearly decade-long legal battle over the harm inflicted on tens of thousands of women by surgically implanted pelvic mesh is moving away from manufacturers and toward the lawyers who helped the women bring their cases. In recent weeks, women who received some of roughly $8 billion in settlements have sued their lawyers, accusing them of improperly enriching themselves with excessive fees or stretching themselves too thin to properly handle the pelvic mesh cases. A separate suit filed in federal court in Houston on Thursday alleges that another group of firms took on so many cases that they missed filing deadlines for hundreds of women, potentially reducing the value of their claims against the mesh manufacturers to virtually nothing. “Lawyers should know the rules, and they are supposed to follow them,” said Adam Slater, a lawyer whose firm filed the potential class action in New Jersey. “A lot of the problems start with firms taking on more cases than they can reasonably handle.”

Source: New York Times June 14, 2019 19:11 UTC