Class Action Litigation
Siegel Brill has a high level national class action practice. Shareholders Wood R. Foster, Jr. and Jordan M. Lewis, supported by other members of the firm, focus on employee- and consumer-related issues. They have had lead roles in litigation throughout the United States. Verdicts and settlements in these cases have resulted in distributions to hundreds of thousands of class members totaling in excess of $200 million.
The following describes some of the cases with which the firm is involved:
Health Care Litigation –The firm was lead counsel in a series of cases filed around the country on behalf of health insurance subscribers who paid too much for their coinsurance based on improper calculations by insurers. These cases involved prescription drugs, hospitalization costs, and office visits as well as long term nursing home care.
Siegel Brill is lead counsel in a group of cases brought on behalf of pharmacists who contended that their drug reimbursements were improperly calculated by pharmacy benefit managers.
The firm has a major role in a series of cases that challenge several large national health insurers’ calculations of physicians’ “usual, customary and reasonable” charges. These cases, brought on behalf of both patients and physicians, assert that the database used to calculate these charges is contaminated and unreliable.
The firm was co-lead counsel in a series of cases involving underpayment of COBRA health insurance benefits. The case was brought on behalf of Minnesota insureds who believed they were overcharged for the insurance.
The firm is lead counsel in a case involving Medicare Part B and Part D Prescription Drug coverage. The first of its kind nationally, the suit alleges that the insurer improperly allocated certain drugs as covered under Part D when it should be covered under Part B. The difference to the insured is thousands of dollars a year.
ERISA Litigation – Many of the health care cases mentioned above involved the federal statute ERISA. But the firm’s expertise in ERISA is broader than just health care cases. For example, the firm was lead counsel brought on behalf of pensioners who contended that their pensions were miscalculated by their employer. The firm has been lead counsel in numerous class actions in which the firm represented retirees who challenged their former employers’ cuts to their pension and insurance benefits.
Employee Status Litigation – Siegel Brill is increasingly involved in a lead role in employee status litigation. Some of the cases challenge employers’ designation of certain of its workers as independent contractors when they should be classified as employees. In other cases, Siegel Brill represents workers who – they claim – were not paid for required job services. In other cases, Siegel Brill has taken the lead role in prosecuting large-scale age discrimination cases.
Antitrust – Siegel Brill has taken the lead role in a variety of complex antitrust cases that dealt, generally, with workers’ compensation insurers.
Consumer Litigation – Siegel Brill has a long history of representing consumers. These cases have been brought under usury laws, under the Fair Debt and Collection Practices Act, and other state statutory and common law theories.
Bankruptcy Litigation – The firm has been active in representing debtors in a variety of class lawsuits filed in bankruptcy courts.
In most cases, Siegel Brill finds itself pitted against major national law firms and well-heeled opponents, yet it has a tremendous success rate in these complex cases. The firm has succeeded because it has discipline and focus.
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