So, The Plaintiffs' Lawyers in MDL 1938 Are "Playin' on the House", Now. . . .

[UPDATED 08.06.09 @ 10 AM EDT -- news posts, on this topic, here, here, here and here; and that kind gentleman across the pond, The Insider, at PharmaGossip, has linked this! Thanks!]

As I just intimated at the end of this post, the plaintiffs' attorneys in the Consumer Sub-Class of MDL 1938 will soon have far less incentive to settle the remaining personal injury claims for less-than-boxcar numbers.

Why? Well, because Paragraph 5, on page 10 of the proposed Plan of Allocation (a 27 page PDF file, filed today before Judge Cavanaugh) indicates that those consumer class attorneys will have their fees (to date) paid first from the $12.5 million sub-pool set aside for consumers -- in this partial settlement.

Not a ratable portion of their fees -- no, their full fees, through the date of the final approval hearing before Judge Cavanaugh, still several weeks off. After that time, it is as though they've been "staked" into a high-limits poker game, by a kindly, and well-healed, uncle. . . . the delicious irony here is that the uncle's name is Fred Hassan, CEO of Schering-Plough -- or Tom Sabatino (GC), if you prefer.

Now these plaintiffs' lawyers will have every incentive to press forward, and incur substantial expert fees, for example -- because the lions' share of their fees have already been "staked". So, does this partial settlement look penny-wise and pound-foolish, from the perspective of Schering-Plough?

I'd say so. Afterall, it seems that Schering-Plough only obtained the release of the weakest claims, here -- in my estimation.