Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Chicago
CHICAGO – Pipemaker J-M Manufacturing has filed its latest attempt to show fraud on the part of asbestos lawyers they claim coach witnesses to say they worked with its products decades ago.
The alleged scheme now involves Sokolove Law, whose lead-generation capabilities give Simmons Hanly Conroy extra firepower to overwhelm defendants with lawsuits. J-MM had already sued the Simmons firm for racketeering, but Chicago federal judge Robert Gettleman earlier this year tossed the case.
He granted J-MM time to file a new lawsuit, which the company said would be fortified with information from whistleblowers.
“By tapping into its access and influence with Sokolove – the No. 1 lead generator in the country – Simmons Hanly has expanded its market dominance and fraudulent scheme beyond what it could otherwise achieve,” the suit, filed Tuesday, says.
“Specifically, Simmons Hanly has secured its continued ability to reach and capture the ever-dwindling pool of asbestos plaintiffs, converting Sokolove’s leads into a steady and broad inventory of Simmons Hanly cases used to exert maximum settlement leverage on litigation defendants.”
Fifty percent of attorneys fees makes its way to Sokolove after sending a client to Simmons, the suit says, despite rules against fee-splitting with out-of-state firms. And it helps craft the narrative that those clients were exposed to asbestos from certain products, J-MM says.
J-MM has been sued more than 6,000 times since 2000, including at least 400 filed by the Simmons firm. The company made a concrete pipe in the 1980s that contained asbestos.
It started its investigation after a former asbestos lawyer at Simmons sued the firm for retaliation for reporting alleged wrongdoing. Scott Peebles ultimately settled his case, but J-MM got involved with an effort to unseal certain portions of his allegations.
J-MM claimed in its lawsuit that its probe has discovered clients were coached on what to say about exposure to an asbestos-containing pipe the company produced, or they outright lied.
Key to asbestos claims is product identification. Plaintiffs are asked to recall products used decades ago on jobsites so their lawyers can sue the companies associated with them, though it is tough to determine the accuracy of the testimony.
The complaint cites a group of cases resolved within the last five years, including Sebastian Bretado's. He claimed he contracted mesothelioma while doing "line drainage" for landscapers in the 1980s.
During a deposition, Bretado was shown products and labels and asked if he remembered working with them. He answered that he had used a power saw and power drill on J-MM's pipe, though the company says he couldn't remember any specific location he ever worked at, the full name of any co-workers or the names of any customers.
He provided the name of three employers, including Oak Ridge Landscaping. The two individual employers have passed, but their family members testified that they never ran any landscaping businesses, while the principal of Oak Ridge said the company never used the J-MM pipe and that he didn't remember Bretado.
The new lawsuit says Sokolove markets itself as a nationwide asbestos firm that will “handle every step of the legal process” but is little more than a lead-generator for other firms like Simmons.
Its purported Illinois address is actually the office of the Simmons firm, the suit says, just like its California address. Partnerships with asbestos firms is its real business, not trying cases, J-MM says.
To circumvent state regulations on fee-splitting with out-of-state firms, it presents referral attorneys as members of Sokolove, the suit says – “These outside attorneys are ‘members’ in name only and serve merely as a fig leaf to hide or minimize scrutiny into potential violations of state rules governing fee-splitting with out-of-state attorneys and non-attorneys.”
