Ronald
R. Benjamin opened his firm in 1979 with the purpose of practicing
public interest law. The firm represented individuals in need, ranging
from mistreated prisoners to handicapped children who were denied
treatment or benefits to which they were entitled. In representing its
clients, the firm brought numerous lawsuits against the government,
including federal and local officials, to seek redress for a wide range
of wrongdoings.
At that time, we believed that an act passed by the legislature,
entitled 42 U.S.C. 1983, would provide the firm with sufficient income
to support a viable public interest law practice. It was the intent of
Congress to support such litigation by enacting a statute that required
the government to pay attorney fees for any litigation that succeeded
in a claim against it. This was not to be. The U.S. Supreme Court and
numerous other courts have made it very difficult to get paid, forcing
the firm to move into more traditional areas of litigation, including
general negligence, medical malpractice, and suing manufacturers who
place defective products on the market. The firm's pharmaceutical
litigation focuses on the drugs not being properly tested, causing
serious injury and often misleading doctors who believed the drugs
would be beneficial.
The firm's experience in civil rights litigation proved to be very
successful in fighting the hardball approach usually used by large
corporations, especially pharmaceutical companies, who often attempt to
wear down the already injured victims by forcing them to accept a
settlement for a fraction of the case's true value. The reason is that
no matter what the circumstances, e.g. retaliation against whistle
blowers, denying employment rights, or denying people benefits to which
they are entitled, the government will invariably deny wrongdoing.
Instead, it will pound you with paper, devoting inordinate amounts of
time trying to dismiss the case, usually on technical grounds that have
little to do with the merits of the case. This stems largely from the
fact that lawyers representing the government, whether government
employees or not, are paid from the public purse and are thus oblivious
to real world time and money constraints.
Ironically, the major corporations in this country operate the same
way. Although not directly paid from the public purse, between tax
write-offs and passing it on to the consumer, the public ends up
footing the bill, adding insult to injury. The success of this kind of
litigation is best shown in the tobacco companies and the fact that
they were able to last for decades by burying the truth about their
products and drowning litigants in a sea of litigation. Our firm is
determined not to allow such tactics to diminish the true value of our
cases, and our experience with the government has positioned us to
overcome these tactics and meet the same head-on when necessary to get
the case to trial on the merits of the claim.
The success of our firm is best reflected in the fact that in the last
ten years alone our office has recovered over $100 million for injuries
sustained by our clients. In fact, in 1991, Mr. Benjamin turned back
the hardball tactics employed by the attorneys for Eli Lilly, which
manufactured the drug diethylstilbestrol, commonly known as DES, and
was able to secure the highest individual jury verdict in the history
of the United States on behalf of a client who sustained injuries from
this drug.
Although practical realities have resulted in our moving into other
areas of law, with an emphasis on suing pharmaceutical companies who
place dangerous drugs in the marketplace, we remain very active in
civil rights litigation ranging from representing disadvantaged and
handicapped children to misconduct by police. We remain committed to
both the public interest and the individual interests of our clients
and have the significant trial experience necessary to realize a
maximum recovery on behalf of our clients. |
