THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407080009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
The editorial ``Breast implant scam'' (June 20) indicated that 22 attorneys would be dividing $1 billion as a result of a global settlement reached by breast-implant manufacturers and preliminarily approved on April 1, 1994. This statement is false and deserves immediate retraction.
Literally hundreds of attorneys have assisted in the discovery, litigation and settlement of this case, and will receive fees and costs from these funds. Most of the attorneys have worked on this litigation for several years, taking substantial risks, fronting expenses not only for discovery and litigation but also for medical evaluations and medical care for the hundreds of women suffering rheumatic and autoimmune diseases. Few insurance companies were willing to extend coverage for medical treatment, including the cost of explantation surgeries, and few physicians were willing to provide medical services without payment up-front.
The editorial also failed to point out that the percentage of the settlement funds set aside for attorney fees is probably the lowest percentage award in a mass tort settlement. The editorial also failed to point out that the average plaintiff's attorney handling product-liability cases receives a fee that is substantially less than fees paid by defendant manufacturers to their attorneys. (See National Insurance Consumer Organization Product Liability Report, 1991.)
With respect to the Mayo Clinic study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the editorial failed to indicate that the majority of the funding for that study was received from plastic-surgeons' associations and other defendants.
Further, the editorial did not mention the many flaws of the study, one of the most glaring being that the mean age was 34 years old, while most women who have developed rheumatic and autoimmune diseases as a result of implants are generally older as symptoms develop for the most part commencing seven years after implantation. Further, the editorial failed to mention the numerous studies that in fact support the casual connection between silicone implants and rheumatic and autoimmune diseases, many of which were not disclosed by industry until recently.
MARGARET MOSES BRANCH
Plaintiffs' attorney for women
with breast implants
Albuquerque, N.M., June 24, 1994 by CNB