A fight over fees from about 500 fen-phen lawsuits has been raging in Harris County since January 2008, when Houston plaintiff's lawyers Charles and Stephen Kirklin and their firm, The Kirklin Law Firm, sued plaintiff's lawyer George Fleming and his Houston-based firm over millions in fees.
The fee dispute is set for trial on Oct. 7 in 164th District Judge Alexandra Smoots-Hogan's court, but that's the eleventh trial setting for the lawsuit, according to court records. Most of those trial settings went by the wayside after judges granted continuances, including a legislative continuance Smoots-Hogan granted in March at the request of Fleming and Fleming & Associates. Craig Eiland, a Galveston attorney who is in the Texas House of Representatives, is a member of the defense team.
