David Williams represented a New Jersey man in a whistleblower case that resulted in a pharmacy and its owners paying the federal government $775,000 for allegedly engaging in an illegal kickback scheme. The scheme involved a third-party marketing company inducing patients to get medication they didn’t need and then having the pharmacy bill Medicare and receiving a substantial share of the reimbursements. The pharmacy, Vital Life Institute LLC, formerly known as AgeVital Pharmacy, located in Sarasota, Fla., agreed to pay the sum to resolve claims it violated the federal False Claims Act. “By timely informing the government of this fraud our client proved instrumental in exposing and ending the defendants’ scheme,” Williams told the news media. “Hopefully these types of actions will also serve as a deterrent to others who would defraud essential government programs.” The whistleblower, an elderly Williamstown man, was set to be paid a reward of roughly $140,000 by the government for helping to expose the alleged scheme. Williams added: “This settlement demonstrates the value and impact of everyday citizens who come forward to expose fraud. Medicare beneficiaries who carefully review their explanation of benefits statements like this citizen can make a difference.” Kline & Specter’s practice focuses largely on personal injury and medical malpractice, but the firm also litigates other matters, such as whistleblower cases. In 2018 and 2019, Williams has represented whistleblowers in cases involving Medicare and Medicaid fraud that resulted in settlements of $16.2 million, $5.9 million and $3.5 million.

The battle against defective vaginal mesh products is making headway not only in the courts but also in the news media and with the Food and Drug Administration. After years of debate over the products, the government agency recently ordered the two remaining companies selling the medical device for the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse – Boston Scientific and Coloplast -- to remove the products from the market. The FDA’s step could portend similar action for the purveyors of all mesh products, including those still sold to treat urinary incontinence. Kline & Specter has been a key combatant in the fight, with its attorneys exerting pressure in several ways on the FDA to act. Indirectly: by winning seven verdicts totaling $266 million against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon. The verdicts got wide media coverage, one with a lengthy segment on the long-running BBC program Panorama. Directly: In February, two months before the FDA action, Kila Baldwin, winner of several verdicts against Ethicon, addressed an FDA agency advisory committee about the use of vaginal mesh for the treatment of anterior pelvic organ prolapse. Noting catastrophic injuries caused by mesh products, she quoted an internal J&J document stating that “no mesh is the best mesh.” Baldwin told the FDA panel: “My clients agree.” Shanin Specter, quoted in a lengthy article on mesh products in The New York Times, said the FDA should extend its latest decision to mesh devices used to treat some urinary conditions. “This is a good step forward,” he said, “but mesh used to treat stress incontinence also continues to devastate thousands of women, and the FDA should act decisively there, too.” In the Times article, which noted more than 100,000 cases against mesh products, Specter said mesh devices used to treat urinary incontinence have an unacceptably high complication rate, in the range of five to 15 percent. He noted there is an alternative surgical procedure that foregoes mesh and instead uses a patient’s own tissue. “There was never a need for these mesh products,” he said. (Read article)

In an effort to strike a blow at the rampant sex slave business, Tom Kline, Nadeem Bezar, Emily Marks and Kyle Nocho filed suit against three Philadelphia hotels where two captive girls were sold for sex. The complaint accused the owners and management of the Roosevelt Inn, Days Inn and North American Motor Inns of failing to take steps to prevent sex trafficking “and instead permitted heinous and unspeakable acts to occur” at their establishments. The girls were 15 and 16 years old when they were forced into prostitution by two different traffickers for several months. They were freed in 2013 following raids by the FBI and city police. Kline told the news media: “The lawsuit filed today will seek to remedy the disregard of the degradation and humiliation of young women in order to pursue a profit. These lawsuits seek to right a wrong on behalf of the victims of not only crime, but illicit gain.” Bezar added that it was wrong of the hotels to turn a blind eye to the victimization of girls and that, “Plain and simple, it’s not acceptable to profit from the sexual assault of children.” (Watch Fox29 coverage) The complaint alleged the girls were solicited, held and then taken to the hotels, where they were drugged and forced to have sex with paying customers. Their captors would accompany the girls, described as fearful and anxious, and treat them “in an aggressive manner” at the hotels, where cash was paid for rooms to staff with knowledge of what was occurring on the premises. The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages. The action follows a suit filed a year ago by the firm against the Roosevelt Inn that was the first civil action under the Pennsylvania Human Trafficking Law of 2014, which allows for compensation for victims against those who profit directly or indirectly from the crime. 

Tom Kline was the keynote speaker at The Dispute Resolution Institute’s 21st annual Personal Injury Potpourri held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. He discussed four themes of practicing law – advocacy, remedy, accountability and reform – and did so by giving the 500 attorneys in attendance a virtual (Power Point) tour of the Thomas R. Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy and its recently completed Exhibit Hall. The institute, at 12th and Chestnut streets, includes exhibits of some of Kline’s famous cases, such as the Hall v. SEPTA case in which he won a $51 million verdict for a little boy whose foot was torn off in a SEPTA escalator. The case also resulted in the mass transit agency replacing and updating its escalators systemwide and also improving its inspections program. The exhibit includes details of many other cases plus artifacts from the “life and times” of Tom Kline. One such item was the somewhat misshapen metal funnel Kline had made in his younger days, an exhibit accompanied with Kline’s words: “When I brought home this funnel, which I made in seventh grade shop class, my dad inspected the shape and rendered the following verdict: ‘It is clear that you are going to have to learn to make your living with your head rather than your hands.’”  (Watch the full speech.)

Chip Becker co-presented a program titled "The Pennsylvania Constitution:  An Independent Source of Rights and Judicial Power" to the Pennsylvania State Trial Judges Conference in Pittsburgh. The conference is an annual event for the Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court judges, of whom there are roughly 500 across the state. Also in attendance were many state appellate judges. The program highlighted provisions of the Pennsylvania Constitution that have no counterpart in the federal document yet have governed significant judicial decisions in Pennsylvania. The program also discussed Pennsylvania constitutional rights that overlap with federal constitutional rights but have been interpreted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a distinct fashion based on Pennsylvania history and the text and structure of the Pennsylvania constitution.

Tom Kline appeared on CNN’s Headline News in a lengthy segment following the sentencing of four Penn State fraternity brothers in the hazing death of Timothy Piazza. Kline, who represents parents Jim and Evelyn Piazza, said: “This is about accountability and deterrence and the most important mission of the Piazzas is to make sure that this never happens again.” The Piazzas have been making appearances across the country to push for legislation to make hazing a felony. Pennsylvania recently enacted such a law. “At the end of the day,” Kline said, “the Piazzas want to make sure that no other parents have their situation with this horrible tragedy and the loss of their son.”  (Watch the segment) 
 

July 22 — Andra Laidacker will speak at the annual Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s Supreme Court Roundup 2019 – a review of cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2018-2019 term. At the PBI’s Wanamaker Building Conference Center, Philadelphia, 12:00-4:30 p.m.