Bad blood victims brace for fresh battle against lawyers

Monday, 07 April 2008 NZPA

Victims infected with hepatitis C in the bad blood scandal of the 1990s are facing a fresh battle against their lawyers. The lawyers are claiming thousands of dollars in legal costs from compensation awarded by the state.

The dispute is preventing 25 victims with haemophilia from receiving lump sums from the Government and delaying some members from starting treatment for the hepatitis C they contracted through contaminated blood products.

Brian O'Mahony, the head of the Irish Haemophilia Society, who visited Christchurch this week, has called the latest twist in the saga "grotesque", "bizarre" and "unprecedented". He is calling for a truce so victims can get their long-awaited compensation.

In December 2006, the Government announced a $31 million package for people infected with hepatitis from blood products before screening was belatedly introduced in New Zealand in 1992. About 180 people with haemophilia and nearly 400 others were infected by then, despite screening becoming commercially available overseas in 1990.

So far, 486 victims have applied for one-off payments and the Government has paid out $25.5m. Most of the affected haemophiliacs -- about 155 -- have received packages from $43,200 to $69,600, enabling many to start a chemotherapy-type drug course for hepatitis C.

The liver-attacking virus can lead to cirrhosis (scarring) and cancer. But the 25 victims, including two from Christchurch, have held off accepting compensation while they are locked in a dispute with their lawyers, who are seeking costs of $12,700 to $18,500 per person, ranging from 19 per cent to 38% of the packages.

The victims were among 55 haemophiliacs, and 215 clients in total, who signed up for a class action to sue the Government for failing to introduce national screening earlier. The action never went ahead because a political settlement was reached after 14 years of negotiation between the Haemophilia Foundation of New Zealand and successive governments.

But the lawyers, Johnston Lawrence, of Wellington and Penney Patel Law, of Auckland, still want the cut that was agreed when the civil suit was being planned.

Thirty haemophiliac clients have settled, many because they needed the money to start up to 48 weeks of hepatitis C treatment with crippling side effects which could render them unable to work.

The rest are holding out in the hope agreement can be reached. For Mike Mapperson, one of those waiting to settle, it is a matter of principle. Of the $39,000, plus $2000 legal fees, he is entitled to, the lawyers want a third. "I signed up with the lawyers on the basis that there was going to be a legally achieved settlement. But I don't think the lawyers actually achieved the settlement. The Haemophilia Foundation did." "

The contract never had any clauses in it to say that if there's a political settlement, rather than a legal settlement, you won't have to pay any fees or as many fees. "The benefit -- or the disadvantage -- of hindsight now shows that the lawyers get paid no matter how we get the money and no matter how much money we get."

So far, despite 14 months of negotiation between the foundation and lawyers, the dispute remains unresolved. More lawyers for both sides, and more costs, will be involved in trying to settle the row through mediation in Wellington next month.

Roger Chapman, a senior partner of Johnston Lawrence who is handling the bad blood matter, is overseas until the end of the month. His firm said only Chapman could respond to the issue. Norman Elliot, a principal of Penney Patel Law did not want to comment.

O'Mahony, a past president of the World Federation of Haemophilia, said the fact that some people were having to put their treatment on hold, because the dispute had delayed settlement, was "grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and it is unprecedented". In Ireland, where a political settlement reached in 1991 for haemophiliacs who contracted HIV resulted in the winding up of a class action, lawyers were paid 3% of each victim's award.

"Here they are looking for 19% to 38%," O'Mahony said. "It's unconscionable." Claimants should not have to pay large fees to the lawyers for the work carried out by the Haemophilia Foundation, he said. O'Mahony is urging lawyers to reach an agreement with victims to bring some closure.

Mapperson said that, unlike other cases, the dispute was not delaying his access to treatment.