Mass Tort Attorneys|Sued for $13 Million

HOUSTON (CN) - "We are going to be rich," a Houston "mass tort" attorney told a contractor before stiffing it for $13 million worth of paralegal work, the contractor claims in court.

James Lee is managing partner of the Lee Murphy Law Firm in Houston, which attracts thousands of clients for litigation against drug companies and medical device makers with TV ads.

QTAT BPO Solutions sued Lee, his business partner Clayton A. Clark and their law firms on Aug. 27 in Harris County Court.

QTAT was founded by the former chief anesthesiologist of a Houston hospital and his wife. It claims that its staff, which includes doctors and nurses, reviewed medical records of 30,000 of the defendants' clients and logged more than 60,000 hours doing data entry and paralegal work on cases.

QTAT says Lee persuaded it to do the work upfront with the promise of handsome returns: "'We are going to be rich,' assured James Lee (repeatedly). 'You're going to make $20 million.'" (Parentheses in complaint.)

Lee and Clark formed defendant Litigation & Records Services LLC "to increase their profits" by providing medical review and case legwork for clients, and adding those fees on top of the 40 percent they get from settlements, QTAT claims.

"LRS had no intention of actually providing all of these additional services, nor did it have the capability of doing so. Instead, LRS outsourced the work to plaintiff QTAT," the complaint states.

QTAT claims that in two year it did $15 million worth of work on drug cases for the attorneys' company, for which it was paid less than $2 million. It claims that Lee and Clark strung it along by promising to pay when the cases were settled.

"In fact, at least half of the drug cases have settled and settlement funds have been distributed to everyone except QTAT - the clients have been paid, the attorneys have been paid, Clark & Lee and LRS have been paid. But QTAT is still waiting," the company says.

QTAT seeks punitive damages for fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, aiding and abetting and conspiracy.

It is represented by Houston attorney John Neese.

Lee and Clark did not respond to requests for comment.

Here are the defendants: Litigation & Records Services LLC; James Lee Jr.; James Lee Law Firm PC; Lee & Murphy Law Firm GP; Clayton A. Clark; Clayton A. Clark, Esq. PC; and Clark Love & Hutson GP.

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