Judge in Fen-Phen Case

[WSJ Law Blog]

The trial of the Phen-Fen lawyers motored on yesterday with the testimony of former Boone County circuit judge Joseph “Jay” Bamberger, who testified, according to reports, that he’s “embarrassed” by the way he handled the underlying Phen-Fen suit.

According to the Herald-Leader, Bamberger testified that he should’ve kept himself better informed about what was going on in the case by demanding more detailed info from the attorneys involved. But Bamberger, who approved a $200 million settlement in the underlying case, as well as the attorneys’ fees, said he didn’t demand more because he had an overwhelming caseload and was dealing with “experienced” lawyers. “I trusted them,” he said.

Melbourne Mills Jr., William Gallion and Shirley Allen Cunningham Jr. are on trial in federal court in Kentucky for allegedly bilking their approximately 440 clients out of $65 million of a $200 million settlement.

Bamberger testified that when he signed a court order in February 2002 approving attorneys’ fees amounting to 49% of the overall settlement, he was unaware that the lawyers already had signed contingency agreements with individual clients calling for fees in the 30-33% range. He also said he didn’t know that the Kentucky Bar Association had conducted a hearing earlier in February into whether to subpoena Mills’ bank records. Bamberger reportedly said his actions would have been “dramatically” differently if he had known those facts.

According to Bamberger, when Stanley Chesley — the Cincinnati class-action lawyer who negotiated the settlement but is not a defendant in the criminal case — suggested the creation of a “cy pres” fund to hold leftover settlement money, he’d never heard the term before.

In 2006, the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission reprimanded Bamberger for his handling of the Fen-Phen case. Bamberger, a 30-year veteran of the bench who twice won statewide awards for his work as a circuit judge, chose to retire rather than face formal sanctions.