Thursday, July 14, 2005

Judge Jack's Texas Smackdown

I've been meaning to write for some time about my newest heroine; The Honorable Janis Graham Jack of the U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi, Texas. In what must be one of the greatest defeats for the plaintiffs' bar in recent decades, Judge Jack positively slammed a whole troop of class-action lawyers in a multi-jurisdictional trial involving silicosis. Not only are almost all of the 10,000+ cases before her now in the round file of justice, but sanctions galore is the order of the day for those *ahem* "officers of the court" that tried to play fast and loose with the truth in her courtroom.

Why did Judge Jack do it? Because she simply wouldn't accept at face value what the plaintiffs' attorneys were offering in terms of evidence and "expert" testimony. Something smelled, and smelled bad. So Judge Jack conducted her own investigation, and lordy what an investigation it was, taking over 20 months. Some of the results of her inquiry appear in today's Wall Street Journal editorial "The Silicosis Sheriff" (subscription only, I'm afraid):
Her first discovery was that, of the more than 9,000 plaintiffs who supplied more information about their "disease," 99% had been diagnosed with silicosis by the same nine doctors. These physicians had been retained by law firms or by "screening companies" that do mass X-rays on behalf of law firms searching for plaintiffs. When these physicians were deposed, they all but admitted they took their orders from the lawyers and screening firms.

Which explains why none of them took a medical history, while others never even saw their patients. One doctor signed blank forms for the screening company and let his secretary fill out the diagnoses. Yet another performed 1,239 diagnostic evaluations in 72 hours -- less than four minutes apiece. Dr. George Martindale, who diagnosed 3,617 patients with silicosis, admitted that he didn't even know the criteria for diagnosing the disease and had simply included in each of his reports a paragraph provided by the screening company.

Another shocker was that more than 65% of the silica plaintiffs had previously been plaintiffs in an asbestos suit, even though it is close to clinically impossible to have both asbestosis and silicosis. Digging deeper, the judge found that many of the same doctors had ginned up the same patients for both asbestos and silicosis cases. One doctor, Ray Harron, received nearly $5 million from 1996-2004 from a leading screening company, N&M, and has supplied thousands of silicosis diagnoses, and at least 52,000 asbestos-related diagnoses.

Are you getting the idea? "These diagnoses were about litigation rather than health care," she wrote in her 249 (!!!) page decision. "These diagnoses were manufactured for money." Well, Judge Jack, God bless her, wasn't going to take any such crap in her courtroom. In true Texas fashion, the good judge opened up a can o' whoop ass on the plaintiff's attorneys.
Judge Jack reserved her most severe criticism for the lawyers, noting that statistics alone should have shown that their case defied "all medical knowledge and logic," and that by bringing it regardless they had exhibited a "reckless disregard of the duty owed to the court." She required the Houston firm of O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle to pay the defendants' $825,000 in legal fees, and ordered sanctions. She also made clear she was on to the tort bar's tactics, noting that the "clear motivation" was "to inflate the number of plaintiffs and overwhelm the defendants and the judicial system."

Judge Jack did not shy away from the word "fraud" in her courtroom, and clearly someone at the Justice Department has been paying attention. A Manhattan grand jury is now investigating at least one of the screening companies, and subpoenas have gone out to at least two of the doctors involved.
And there you have it, folks. A real by god American hero. We rag on our judges so often about the terrible decisions that only a few of them are actually responsible for (see, e.g., KJ's example today of juriprudence gone awry) that its truly refreshing to read about one judge that took it upon herself to get it right.

Thank you Judge Jack. You are my kind of gal.

19 comments:

Pile On® said...

There is an opening in Washington. Is she an originalist?

spd rdr said...

Damn, she's a Texan, Pile. Why are you asking?

portia said...

Damn. Bottom of the 8th, 6 all, even Schilling surfaces and I'm still at the office. Go ahead spd, you're turn to tell me what I'm missing. Maybe if it goes extra innings, I'll get home in time to see the Sox lose:) If not there's always tomorrow night and the next....

spd rdr said...

A-Rod takes him downtown...
I am dying here.

portia said...

Way to go AAAAAAAAAAA-Rod!

portia said...

Boy, am I glad there are 300 miles separating us tonight:)

portia said...

spd? hello? anybody home?
I guess you're still venting....I'll guess I'll be shutting up now.

Get some rest, there's more ball to play tomorrow.

portia said...

A day later. Same stadium, same teams...same W-L?

Ha! YES network just ran a Yankee'ography of Reggie Jackson before tonight's game. Two great quotes jumped out that I had to pass along:
Steinbrenner: "There isn't enough mustard to cover him because he is the biggest hot dog there is."

Reggie, quoted in print, after he joined the Yankees: "I am the straw that stirs the drink. Thurmon Munson thinks he's the straw but he can only stir it bad."

Ohhhhhhhhh. Cocky, brilliant bast*rd. He started it all...didn't he? And we're taking that swagger to Fenway, again...tonight:)

portia said...

OK, OK, I can hear you in Brooklyn! Yes, it's bottom of the second, 7 nothing Red Sox. SO?? What are 17 yrs old again? S-l-o-w down, Boston. You have the rest of the night--5 plus innings--to work your old sorry, as*es to exhaustion. Hey David, how's that 42 yr old arm holding up?

Got to love Portia, always watching out for the underdog:)

Am I alone here...?

spd rdr said...

Shit, Portia, it's 12 to 1 in the 4th, Red Sox up. What did you guys think? It was going to be easy? This is going to be a dog fight, and I love it.

For all you fans in Chicago, the White Sox may have the goods to be champions, but the only flame that matters in the AL burns northward of Maryland up I-95.

God, I do so love this game.

portia said...

Damn. Top of the 6th and the same lopsided score. Of course Mr. RSN, I didn't think it would be easy but I didn't expect to see us on our knees so soon....

Me too.

portia said...

Oh SH*T. E tu, Ortiz? No wonder I burnt dinner...again.

portia said...

Nah. Don't even bother. No words are necessary. You creamed us. Our pitching was pitiful, and you won, big time. I'm so pis*ed that I won't even bring up the fact that your loss last night was probably more painful than ours was tonight. That's not my style:) Instead, I'll remember the words of my Great (maiden) Aunt who told me "darling, keep your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole." Good advice, I think....

So go ahead, spd, have a victory beer on me tonight, and relish your team's one win this weekend.
Note to Mrs. rdr: Tonight's the night:)

spd rdr said...

You are as gracious as ever in defeat, Portia. I salute your courage, and that of any Yankee fan still standing tall after being completely humiliated tonight by the Sox 17 to 1. Now that the Sox homestand series is tied, WE WILL RIP OUT YOUR THROATS AND STOMACHS AND FEED THEM TO OUR GOATS. Or maybe not. There's lots of good baseball still to be played. Best advice is to take it one game at a time ANF THE HAVE A PARADE TO CELEBRATE SATAN'S COACHING.

Boink.

portia said...

Again, with the goats....

Willing to make a wager on this afternoon's game, spd? How 'bout a dozen NY bagels, hand rolled, and hand delivered, to the victor? Make mine with a smear:)

More boink.

spd rdr said...

Where am I going to get hand-rolled New York bagels in Richmond?
How about a dozen Krispy Kremes?

portia said...

Where am I going to get hand-rolled New York bagels in Richmond?

You probably won't be able to but because you're planning ahead--and I do like the way you think-- I'll give you a hint what you'll need to do, instead.

If I lose, Krispy Kremes are on me:)

portia said...

Bottom of the 3rd. 6-0 Yanks.

I'm just taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River line.
Cause I'm in a, I'm in a New York state of mind.

portia said...

7-4 Yankeees...that's more like it. I couldn't watch the whole game but I did catch the Sheffield /A-Rod line-up that sealed our lead. Sheffield *SMACK* a double; A-Rod *SMACK* See Ya. Nice, very nice. A-Rod may be the best baseball player today...he certainly is the best looking:) Nice, very nice.

Any assortment will do. But no cinnamon raisin, no low-carb, no designer bagels: "If God had wanted sun-dried tomatoes put into bagels, he would have put more bagel bakers in Italy."

One game at a time, spd. I'll make sure I keep a dozen of these nearby, just in case:)