Who really won out in the $2.5 billion Johnson & Johnson metal hip settlement? Not patients, some reports say.
When Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement to close some 8,000 cases over its metal-on-metal hip implants, about 1/3 of that money went to the lawyers and legal teams representing the cases.
Lawyers took an average of $90,000 of each patient’s $250,000 award, according to a New York Times report, a hefty cut that has some patients irked about the value that their legal representation brought to their cases. One patient told the Times that he estimates that his lawyer did less than $4,000 worth of work, gathering medical records and paying legal fees.
