Weitz & Luxenberg P.C.'s Disgraceful AstraZeneca Seroquel Settlement Agreement Offer Commentary - Part 2

REJECT AstraZeneca’s Disgraceful Seroquel Settlement Offer – Demand Justice, Fairness, & Accountability

After a couple of days of digesting this Seroquel settlement offer made by Weitz & Luxenberg (which we can safely assume is a comparable reflection of for better or much worse what other injured seroquel litigant victims will be receiving in short order from other various law firms across the country). I believe this would be a good time as any to start breaking this offer down piece by piece from a the injured parties perspective (since "WE KNOW" it’s the actual victims of these corporate crimes who’s voices are seldom heard or reflected in mainstream media reports regarding huge tort litigation). I will choose to use a the style of inserting opinion & commentary within the actual document using a different color *RED* & Italic font for this series of post.

Before we delve into the meat of this document; I would just write/state that I personally believe this settlement mirrors with great clarity everything that is wrong with our legal system in United States of Corptopian America today. The legal profession has (or least should have) an ethical, professional, legal, and moral responsibility to serve their clients “best interest” first and foremost when representing their actions taken against corporate malfeasance & crimes in these civil proceedings. If we didn’t know better, this offer document reads very much like it was written by AstraZeneca and their billion dollar legal dream team, instead of the plaintiff Attorney’s.

Weitz & Luxenberg P.C.'s Bad AstraZeneca Seroquel Settlement Agreement Offer Commentary - Part 2

Where we left off in Part 1:

Let me see if I get what you’re saying here correct! Your law firm trolled for Seroquel Litigants, & then your law firm didn’t even screen potential clients to know (find out, Verify) that they had indeed taken Seroquel and then had a corresponding professional medical diagnosis related to it’s ingestion such as Diabetes or other related adverse conditions? Some six years into your painstaking, unrelenting, aggressive, professional, and thorough representation of some 2351 clients and you can’t even verify they took Seroquel & the resulting adverse effects! WOW!

PART 2

Based on our experience in other litigations and having reviewed the media reports of the terms of other firms' Seroquel settlement programs, we know that the defendants are looking for a settlement program that includes all claimants (W &L Seroquel Plaintiffs) so that they will achieve complete closure of the entirYlitigation.  

Can this also be interpreted to say that from W&L vast wealth of lay down litigation experience, bad settlement deals, and relying upon “NEWS REPORTS”(since settlement negotiations are under a court seal of secrecy) you have concluded that it’s in the “best interest” of your clients to push anyone that doesn’t buy into this pathetic excuse for a settlement out the door and onto the streets with their cases after six years.  

 Our goal in this negotiation was to obtain a settlement for the most amount of money using a fair method to pay our clients based upon the merits of their individual case.

Interesting, I thought your goal was supposed to be representing your clients “best interest” and represent their “best interest” in a court of law before a jury.

 If you had taken any time to sit down with your clients; you would have found Money is just one aspect of what this seroquel litigation is about…I can only assume that by being a personal injury law firm; the words and concepts of “justice” are completely foreign to you.

The fact that AstraZeneca corporation purposely and with calculated forethought illegally marketed & profiteered by allowing a dangerous drug they knew was harmful to injure thousands upon thousands of innocent victims must be totally lost in your settlement $$ thinking.

Money isn’t enough, this chump change you are selling or marketing for AstraZeneca in this offer is an insult.

 I will go out on a limb here, and state that the vast majority of those you represent with actual valid injury cases in this litigation want something far more than mere money…they want AstraZeneca to be held accountable and found guilty/responsible for their reprehensible actions in a very public forum for all America to view.

You would have to add/negotiate many many more zero’s onto the end of this settlement offer to even begin to think AstraZeneca and your law firm can buy these injured parties silence or will they allow this blatant cover-up of despicable crimes to be actualized.

We also stressed our intentions that the case review and payment process be performed quickly yet fairly so that our clients can receive their settlements as soon as possible. A key part of this settlement program is that a claimant cannot be part of the settlement if their case is dismissed and unless they provide, at the very least, a certification that they in fact took Seroquel and suffered an injury. Therefore, please make sure that you return your certification form to us immediately.

Isn’t this something a responsible and reputable law firm would do first before taking on thousands on clients in litigation this serious & heavily defended? Should anyone be surprised you have had cases tossed by the courts when you haven’t even taken the elementary steps to vet your clients? Now you’re placing another burden upon injured parties to do your job for you…As W&L sits back collecting ten of millions of dollars in profits while diverting thier resources to your next bad drug marketing dog and pony show pay day.

We have hired Hon.Marina Corodemus to act as the Special Master for the W&L Seroquel settlement program. Judge Corodemus previously ran the New Jersey Mass Tort Court and has a lot of experience in this field. She was appointed as a Special Master by the Vioxx State and Federal Court Judges to determine the appropriateness of Vioxx settlements and to resolve Vioxx appeals. She has also served as the Special Master in many other litigations such as Bextra and Celebrex which used similar settlement terms. We have met several times with Judge Corodemus and discussed the goals outlined above to get the most amount of money to the most amount of claimants in the fastest amount of time possible. We believe that Judge Corodemus is the perfect choice to create and oversee a settlement program in accordance with these goals.

 Did W&L mention the deemed perfect choice will be paid from the settlement funds, and instead of a doctor or a jury determining the seriousness of your injury and amount of claim; that will be handed over to their paid mediator and then to AstraZeneca to decide what pittance $$ you shall receive out of the swelling kindness of their hearts. As you can see, this W&L Seroquel Settlement Program has been set up in a way that can reward claims that may not even be valid, while burdening those with actual cases and claims to a process of unknown determination. Great scam for W&L, but a horrible injustice and insult to the seriously injured parties they supposedly represent…

  

The W&L Seroquel Settlement Program involves Weitz & Luxenberg's 2,351 clients. Only those clients with active cases (not dismissed as outlined above) can participate in this settlement program. Unlike other settlement programs that you may have read about in the media and internet, the W &L Settlement program does not award every case an equal settlement amount.

 Because W&L (with AstraZeneca directing the show) has devised a plan that will reward even the most shaky claim, while making damned sure those that have been seriously harmed by Seroquel never receive anything close to what they deserve or will need in the future. In fact injured parties will not receive even the most menial standard of health care and will without a just verdict, must go groveling foreword into artificially created substandard life conditions caused by AstraZeneca’s Seroquel & a travesty rubber stamped by their supposed legal representation.

The size of an individual's settlement will depend entirely on the merit of that individual's case. As a direct result of the large number of cases represented by W &L, and the merits of those cases, we are confident that we have obtained the best possible settlement for our clients.

REALITY CHECK! An injured party ending up with 3 TO 5K for a serious lifetime altering medical condition caused by AstraZeneca’s poisonous drug seroquel is the best possible settlement & outcome?

OK, maybe W&L are over stating the truth just a tad bit; but heck, it’s a very profitable deal for W&L, and they just want these cases and Seroquel clients to go away....bigger & better fish to fry as they say...

After complex negotiations, AstraZeneca has agreed to deposit $92.25 Million dollars into a trust account to be used for this Settlement Program. This amount is completely confidential and you should NOT discuss this with anyone.

Shall we also keep confidential that W&L’s share will be over 30 million of the 92.25 million stored away in the AstraZeneca bank. I mean this is all “secret backroom dealings”…we don’t want anyone to know how were selling our clients down the river. It’s absolutely paramount that no one sees how badly we screw over innocent injured citizens in America. We surely don’t want the public to know what a complete sham & corrupted joke the legal system has become. The guilty criminals go free held to no accountability, the lawyers get richer, and plaintiffs? You can plainly see what they get.....

PART 3 coming soon….