Phen-Fen litigation gave rise to a big big fund. $200 million settled the case, but here the lawyers held onto about $126 million.”About 400 people should receive nearly $20 million held in a controversial fund controlled by three Lexington, Ky., lawyers in a lawsuit over the diet drug fen-phen, a judge has ruled.
Special Judge William Wehr last week ordered that funds from the Kentucky Fund for Healthy Living, which was set up using money from a $200 million settlement in Boone Circuit Court, be placed in a trust for the lawsuits’ plaintiffs, all of whom said they suffered medical problems because they took the diet drug.
Lawyers and consultants involved in the lawsuit received $106 million collectively of a $200 million settlement and also set aside $20 million of the settlement to create the nonprofit fund. The lawyers received roughly $20 million each.