Napoli Leaders Talk About Past Mistakes, Future Plans For New York Firm’s Madison County Asbestos Lung Cancer Cases
From the Madison County Record
Just two years after opening an office in Madison County, leaders with New-York based Napoli, Bern, Ripka, Shkolnik are acknowledging their law firm has developed a bad reputation for the number of asbestos lung cancer cases it has filed.
“We continue to hear the almost panic in some people’s voices over the lung cancer docket,” said Patrick Haines, who manages the firm’s Edwardsville office.
Haines on Friday joined his colleagues– Marc Bern, a senior partner in New York; Ethan Horn, a partner in California; and Brad Smith, a partner who heads the firm’s bankruptcy trust team in Texas –to express their intentions to change the firm’s reputation.
The firm leaders held a meeting with local asbestos attorneys to discuss their future litigation plans, as well as some of the mistakes made, particularly with the firm’s initial approach to filing asbestos lung cancer cases.
“We are committed to bringing the practice to a manageable and a realistic level,” Bern said.
Napoli opened an office in Madison County in 2012. Just one year later, the firm dominated the docket, representing roughly 32 percent of the new case filings. Of those 525 cases, more than 90 percent of those cases were lung cancer claims.
Haines agreed his firm files a larger number of lung cancer cases than other asbestos plaintiffs’ firms, but explained that it had obtained an influx of lung cancer cases all at once a few years ago that resulted in mass lung cancer filings last year.
Since then, the Napoli firm has been steadily rejecting and selecting which claims it will represent, Haines said, noting the initial wave of work is complete and should allow for a drop in filing rates.
“We chewed through that work that was all there in one chunk,” he said.
The firm admitted that it erred in its initial filing practices.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Madison County Record
Just two years after opening an office in Madison County, leaders with New-York based Napoli, Bern, Ripka, Shkolnik are acknowledging their law firm has developed a bad reputation for the number of asbestos lung cancer cases it has filed.
“We continue to hear the almost panic in some people’s voices over the lung cancer docket,” said Patrick Haines, who manages the firm’s Edwardsville office.
Haines on Friday joined his colleagues– Marc Bern, a senior partner in New York; Ethan Horn, a partner in California; and Brad Smith, a partner who heads the firm’s bankruptcy trust team in Texas –to express their intentions to change the firm’s reputation.
The firm leaders held a meeting with local asbestos attorneys to discuss their future litigation plans, as well as some of the mistakes made, particularly with the firm’s initial approach to filing asbestos lung cancer cases.
“We are committed to bringing the practice to a manageable and a realistic level,” Bern said.
Napoli opened an office in Madison County in 2012. Just one year later, the firm dominated the docket, representing roughly 32 percent of the new case filings. Of those 525 cases, more than 90 percent of those cases were lung cancer claims.
Haines agreed his firm files a larger number of lung cancer cases than other asbestos plaintiffs’ firms, but explained that it had obtained an influx of lung cancer cases all at once a few years ago that resulted in mass lung cancer filings last year.
Since then, the Napoli firm has been steadily rejecting and selecting which claims it will represent, Haines said, noting the initial wave of work is complete and should allow for a drop in filing rates.
“We chewed through that work that was all there in one chunk,” he said.
The firm admitted that it erred in its initial filing practices.
Read more in our daily News Update...