November 2018 Newsletter
We hope that this letter finds you well. Please allow us to take this opportunity to provide you with information as to some of the exciting and cutting-edge matters that our firm is currently
litigating.
|
Defective Consumer Products
Talcum Powder |
Kiesel Law LLP serves as Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel in the coordinated proceedings. Working closely with a number of other highly regarded plaintiffs’ firms in the matter of Echeverria v. Johnson & Johnson, et al., Kiesel Law obtained a record-setting jury award of $417 million dollars against Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary for the companies’ failure to warn of the elevated risk of ovarian cancer associated with its Baby Powder® and Shower to Shower® talcum powder products. At the time that the Judgment was returned it was the highest ever obtained against Johnson & Johnson in connection with their talc based products, and included a punitive damage award of $347 million. VerdictSearch selected it as #4 of its Top 100 verdicts of 2017.
|
|
Kiesel Law LLP represents the County of Santa Clara which, along with the County of Orange,
is prosecuting an action on behalf of the People of the State of California against the leading manufacturers of opioid pain killers for their past pattern of misbranding and deceptively marketing these dangerous drugs. The manufacturers of these drugs have consistently overstated the benefits of long-term opioid use, at the same time, dismissing or minimizing the serious risks and adverse outcomes of chronic opioid use, including the risk of addiction, overdose and death. The defendants have also deceptively marketed the drugs for indications and uses that were prohibited by the drugs’ labels (“off label use”), thereby extending the use/abuse of these powerful medications to new patients and for chronic diseases for which their use is of even more questionable benefit. As a result, an almost limitless opioid market exists which, in turn, has led to widespread addiction, abuse, injury and death, and has fueled a criminal black market where prices can range from $10-$15 for a single opioid tablet. In a given year, the manufacture and marketing of opioids generates up to $8 billion in revenue for the pharmaceutical industry. On behalf of the People of the State of California, our firm is seeking to recover that ill-gotten money in an action for the violation of California’s False Advertising Law, Unfair Competition Law, and Public Nuisance Law.
|
Defective Medical Devices
Wright Medical Conserve® Metal-on-Metal Hip Implant Products Liability MDL and JCCP Litigation |
Kiesel Law LLP, as Co-Lead Counsel, along with other members of the Plaintiffs’ Leadership Counsel, announced the successful negotiation of a $329.75 million, three-phased settlement program which resolved 1,900 metal-on-metal revised hip claims pending in MDL No. 2329 - Conserve Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, JCCP 4710 - Wright Hip System Cases, and on tolling agreements. in MDL No. 2329, United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and in Wright Hip System Cases, JCCP 4710, Los Angeles Superior Court.
|
Wright Medical Profemur® Modular Neck Failure Litigation |
Kiesel Law LLP achieved confidential settlements for two plaintiffs who were implanted with the same Wright Medical hip replacement device. Both plaintiffs suffered injuries as a result of the sudden catastrophic fracture of the Profemur® Cobalt Chrome modular neck component recalled by MicroPort Orthopedics, Inc. in 2015. Wright Medical Technology, Inc. and MicroPort Orthopedics, Inc. were the defendants in these actions. Kiesel Law LLP continues to serve as Co-Lead Counsel in these cases and pursue claims on behalf of other individuals who were similarly forced to undergo revision surgery due to corrosion or fracture of a Profemur® modular neck. |
Individual Catastrophic Injury and Wrongful Death Cases
Federal Express Vehicle Collision Cases |
 Kiesel Law LLP, acting as Liaison Counsel and Co-lead Counsel for the overall litigation and as counsel to a number of individual plaintiffs, concluded the personal injury and wrongful death litigation stemming from an April 2014 collision between a FedEx truck and bus full of high school students. The driver of the FedEx Freight tractor-trailer crossed over the 50’ center median of I-5 in Orland, California and struck a charter bus carrying high school students from Southern California who were going on a tour of Humboldt State University. The impact was so massive that it forced the tractor-trailer and the bus onto the shoulder where they caught fire and burned in an uncontrolled conflagration. The crash and resulting fire killed 9 occupants of the bus and injured 36 others. Plaintiffs alleged that the FedEx driver departed southbound lanes on the 5 Freeway due to driver distraction. After years of heavily fought litigation, the personal injury and wrongful death cases have all resolved favorably to the passenger plaintiffs.
|
On August 29, 2012, an Infiniti QX56 driven by Solomon Methenge collided with a mini-van, killing the driver and her two young children. Although Mr. Methenge maintained that the accident was caused by a sudden failure of his vehicle’s brakes, Mr. Methenge was charged with vehicular manslaughter. Unbeknownst to him, the Infiniti suffered from a systemic brake defect which had served as the basis for a class action lawsuit against Nissan. Prosecutors learned of the vehicle’s defect and dismissed the criminal charges. Mr. Methenge and the Cruz family then sued Nissan for their respective injuries and losses as co-Plaintiffs. In July 2017, a Los Angeles jury returned a verdict of $24.9 million against Nissan stemming from a fatal two-car collision caused by a defect in the company’s Infiniti QX56. The verdict that our office secured against Nissan turned an innocent man once facing manslaughter charges into a vindicated Plaintiff by establishing that the Infiniti QX56’s faulty brakes caused a fatal collision that killed a mother and two children. Courtroom View Network selected it as the #3 most impressive Plaintiff Verdict of 2017.
|
Neiss v. State of California |
Kiesel Law LLP reached a $10 million settlement with the State of California on behalf of a 13-year-old child who suffered a permanent and debilitating brain injury when the car in which she was riding was struck by a California Highway Patrol vehicle. The plaintiff has undergone multiple surgeries for her injuries and will suffer from developmental issues for the rest of her life.
|
Mass Torts
SoCalGas Leak JCCP |
 The October 2015 SoCalGas methane blowout continues to plague residents of Porter Ranch and its surrounding communities. Following an extended relocation program and disorganized reimbursement and cleaning process, residents continue to fear the residual health effects of the methane release. The full extent of the contaminants released from the blowout remains unknown. Methane continues to leak from the same wellhead that was the source of the leak in October 2015, notwithstanding that it is still out of commission. Uncertainty about the safety of the SoCalGas field has caused home values in the Porter Ranch area to drop dramatically. Our office serves as Liaison Counsel for this litigation with over 240 coordinated individual Complaints filed on behalf of approximately 21,000 private plaintiffs and local businesses in the greater Porter Ranch area and the related class actions. Working with over 115 law firms from across the country, Kiesel Law LLP leads the effort in drafting pleadings, coordinating discovery, and working on a settlement process for the eventual resolution of these cases.
|
Ford Focus and Fiesta MDL and JCCP |
Ford Focus and Fiesta automobiles are plagued with transmission problems and Kiesel Law is at the forefront of litigation against Ford in both Federal and State Court. In In re Ford Motor Co. DPS6 Powershift Transmission Products Liability Litig., MDL 2814, the firm has been appointed Lead/Liaison Counsel for this MDL comprising more than 1,000 lemon law cases which contend that the transmission is defective. Similar litigation has been filed statewide in California Superior Courts and coordinated in In re Ford Motor Warranty Cases, California JCCP No. 4856 (Southern California) and In re Ford Motor Transmission Cases, JCCP No. 4924 (Northern California), and in each KL has been appointed Liaison Counsel on behalf of the hundreds of plaintiffs.
|
Consumer Fraud
City of Los Angeles v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC |
Kiesel Law LLP represents the City of Los Angeles in seeking to recover damages after a failed billing system rollout resulted in millions of lost revenues for the City through its Department of Water and Power (“LADWP”). In 2010, the City awarded a contract to PwC to modernize the LADWP’s nearly forty year-old billing system. To induce the City into awarding it the contract, it is alleged that PwC defrauded LADWP into believing that PwC possessed the skills and experience necessary to develop, trouble-shoot and implement the new billing system and withheld material information concerning its serious failure in implementing a similar system in Cleveland, Ohio. All the while, PwC represented that it had a “100% success rate” in developing, trouble-shooting and installing these billing systems. On top of this alleged fraud, PwC materially breached the contract it had with the LADWP by concealing the system’s defects and failing to act on key deliverables contemplated by the contract. As a result, myriad billing problems and complaints from LADWP customers came flooding in once the new billing system went live in 2013. Kiesel Law LLP is helping the LADWP to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in damages that it incurred and to recover revenue lost at the hands of PwC.
|
Class Actions
Movie Studio Profit Participants Class Actions |
|
Movies studios often agree to compensate talent with a combination of flat sums and backend compensation based on the profits of the film (“profit participation”). Such agreements contained language that the profit participation would be based on all money received by the studio. However, movie studios have only been reporting revenue from home video at 20%, severely undercutting the amount due to profit participants and effectively withholding 80 cents from every dollar of revenue. Kiesel Law LLP has been aggressively litigating a series of class actions on behalf of writers, actors, directors and other profit participants under contract with various studios. Settlements have already been finalized with several studios and the litigation is proceeding against the remaining studio defendants.
|
Automobile Defect Class Actions |
Many automobile manufacturers fail to fix their cars even though the issue an individual consumer is experiencing is not unique and in fact effects thousands of other owners. Kiesel Law is proud to be at the forefront of such litigation. In one lawsuit pending against Toyota in Federal Court in California, the firm represents Prius owners whose car contains a part that is supposed to switch the Prius engine from electric to gas but which fails without warning resulting in a sudden and unexpected loss of power to the vehicle. A separate class action against Toyota which is now pending in both California and Florida Federal Court involves the cars’ air conditioning systems which suffer from a buildup of debris in the system resulting in mold and foul smells inside the vehicle. Another case has recently been filed in California Federal Court against General Motors relating to the brakes on its vehicles failing to operate properly resulting in brake failure.
|
The firm has recently developed a financial services practice group that seeks to represent individuals and institutions who have suffered losses due to the fraud and malfeasance of financial professionals and their affiliated companies. Financial service professionals often engage in a variety of wrongful conduct such as recommending “unsuitable” investments to clients which are not appropriate in light of the client’s financial situation, age or goals, “churning” an account by engaging in excessive trading solely to generate commissions, misrepresenting to clients the financial products and services being offered; and selling so-called “alternative” or exotic investments that are complicated and often structured in such a way that excessive fees and costs are paid to the financial services company with the financial product doomed to failure. As shown by the financial crisis of 2008, even the largest, most profitable, and allegedly reputable financial services companies often engage in these types of wrongful and illegal conduct and we are pleased to seek compensation for our clients on these matters.
|
While the recent news about Facebook’s sharing of intimate data was an awakening to some, Kiesel Law has been at the forefront of such litigation for some time. We first filed suit against Facebook in 2011 regarding its failing to abide by promises to not track consumers once logged out of Facebook. More recently, we filed suit against Facebook for its harvesting of data that individuals were sending to their medical providers which had promised to keep such communications private -- but without warning that information was being sent to Facebook. Further, we were involved in litigation against Carrier IQ for its program on cellular phones that was offloading data to cellular carriers without warning. As more of our lives are being kept on devices and in the cloud, KL will make sure that promises are kept as to how that data is used.
|
In addition, we would like to share with you some of the honors that Kiesel Law LLP has recently received. Our partner, Helen Zukin, was recently appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by Governor Brown. We will miss her thoughtful and civil approach to the most complicated and contentious of litigations as well as her sharp wit and good cheer, but we know that she will become a credit to the Bench. Following Helen’s departure from the firm Bryan Garcia and Mariana McConnell have recently become partners.
Partners Paul Kiesel, Steven Archer, Jeffrey Koncius and Bryan Garcia have again been named SuperLawyers® while our other partner, Mariana McConnell, has again been named a SuperLawyers® Rising Star®. Naturally, we’re extremely proud of this recognition of our ongoing work on behalf of our clients and the legal community.
In the last five years, KL has secured in excess of $450 million in jury verdicts, and in excess of $200 million in settlements on behalf of its clients nationwide.
As always, please feel free to contact us if you have a matter involving any dangerous drugs or medical devices, catastrophic injury, wrongful death or consumer-related claims that our firm can be of assistance with. As you know, our firm agrees to, and pays, referral fees consistent with the State Bar of California’s Code of Ethics. Hope that we can work together soon.
|
|
Kiesel Law LLP
8648 Wilshire BLvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
| | |
|
