Legal News

Filing Shines Light on Expert-Witness Payments

By Dan Slater

Yesterday, the WSJ had a story following up on the news last week of ex-expert-witness John Torkelsen’s plea agreement in which he agreed to plead guilty to perjury for lying to a federal court. As part of that plea agreement, Torkelsen and the government cited several instances in the ’90s where he, with the knowledge of the law firm he was working with, submitted to federal courts inflated bills for his services. The plea papers say the firm was a New York firm which, a person familiar with the matter says, was what is now known as Milberg Weiss. The story looked at one of the cases listed in the plea papers.

The lawyers who filed documents in the 1995 case seeking court approval of reimbursement of expenses, including expert costs, were Keith Park and Patrick Coughlin. Park and Coughlin are current partners at class-action powerhouse Coughlin Stoia and former Milberg lawyers. They did not comment for the story. The lawyers aren’t named in the Torkelsen plea papers, have not been charged with anything, and it’s not known whether they knew fees were improper.

When Bill Lerach, a former partner at both Milberg and Coughlin Stoia, pleaded guilty last fall in connection with an investigation into alleged kickbacks at Milberg Weiss, the government agreed not to prosecute Coughlin or Park in connection with various matters, including the work of a “Princeton” damages expert for Milberg Weiss or Coughlin Stoia. Torkelsen’s firm was called Princeton Venture Research Inc. No other lawyers were specifically named in Lerach’s plea agreement.

The Coughlin firm said in a statement: “Any suggestion that anyone here did anything improper in this matter is inaccurate and irresponsible.” A spokesman did not offer specifics. Milberg Weiss, which is fighting the kickback charges, said “We are not aware of any partner of Milberg Weiss LLP having knowledge of any of the misconduct detailed in Mr. Torkelsen’s plea agreement.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 06, 2008 (boomark / email).