After Janssen Pharmaceuticals racked up more than $150,000 in vendor fees accessing medical records for plaintiffs filing suit in the Risperdal mass tort litigation, a dispute has flared up over how plaintiffs counsel should provide that information and whether they should be able to saddle defendants with the costs if plaintiffs counsel chooses to use a third-party vendor.

Over the past month, Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, has been sparring with the Houston-based law firm of Arnold & Itkin over who should have to pay $156,000 in costs after the Texas firm hired the vendor Lexitas to handle some of its clients’ records. The dispute is being litigated in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, where nearly 7,000 cases are pending over Risperdal.