chapter 17

…
Two hours later…
…

“24 million dollars.” Harvey promptly revealed at the mediator’s request.

Claire couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. Things had been going so well for the last hour. Was this some sort of joke? If so, Claire wasn’t finding it funny at all and she wasn’t going to be shy about letting Harvey know it, “24 million dollars? After everything we talked about?? Are you kidding me? That’s it? I thought you weren’t going to waste my time!”

“24 million dollars is a lot of money.” Harvey spoke to her in the tone of a parent chastising his child.

“24 million dollars pisses me off! Since the demurrer we’ve gotten nearly 500 clients to join the class action lawsuit. Let’s be honest, you know as well as I do that there are more clients out there that you’ve harmed.” Claire growled in a grumpy fashion. She was hoping for a number more than twice that big.

“What does that mean?” Kimmie asked Claire momentarily forgetting that she wasn’t supposed to be talking.

“24 million dollars may sound like a lot Kimmie, but if it is spread out among hundreds,” Claire responded to her intern, before turning her eyes to her opposition and raising her voice, “OR THOUSANDS of people, they won’t get very much personally into their own pockets.”

“We’ve shared our sales numbers with you, and our research concerning the percentage of young women who’ve developed adverse effects attributable to the product in question. You might be able to find another hundred clients but not much more. Keep in mind that 24 million divided by 600 is over 40,000 dollars for each of your clients. More than nearly all your clients would hope to make in a year.” Harvey smoothly made his case behind a charming smile.

Not buying into Harvey’s attempts to trick her, Claire countered harshly, “How much my clients make is irreverent to how much you owe them in damages. $40,000 per client is not enough.”

“How do you figure?” Harvey questioned with his smug New York accent.

Claire didn’t even have to pull out her calculator, she had these facts memorized, “Hypothyroid treatment typically costs between $200 and $1,200 per year for the synthetic thyroid hormone typically prescribed. So, on average our clients will be paying $700 per year for their treatment. Most of our clients are between the ages of 18 and 32. The average female life expectancy in the United States is 78 years old, so we can expect that on average our clients will live with these expenses for roughly 50 or 60 more years. So, the cost of treatment per year on average is $700, the average number of years our clients will have to pay these expenses is 55. So, each client would need $38,500 to cover their medical expenses incurred. So, their medical expenses in total would cost you roughly 23 million dollars.”

“Our offer was 24 million dollars! What’s the issue?” Harvey pressed sounding like he was losing his patience.

“Your offer would fully compensate my clients for their medical expenses, but what about lost wages or loss of earning potential?” Claire replied without losing her cool.

“I’ve read your brief, I understand that one professional cheerleader was fired from her job for putting on weight after developing her thyroid condition, and she has my sympathies, but she is an exception that does not reflect the class you are representing in this lawsuit. Unless you can prove that your class of clients have suffered similar losses, then asking me about lost wages or loss of earning potential is going to be an uphill battle for you that I’d be happy to parse out in court.” Harvey responded on a firm manner.

Claire had to admit that Harvey had a point. She could tell that he wasn’t going to budge on this. Moving along, Claire sighed, “Very well, we are willing to concede this point. However, pain and suffering…”

“Come on, really?” Harvey interrupted, “We pulled our product from the market the instant we got reports…”

“Don’t change the subject.” Claire interrupted him right back, “Let’s talk about the pain and suffering my clients have experienced. Let’s talk about their emotional distress.”

“Emotional distress? Are you kidding me? Why?” Harvey shrugged looking disinterested with what Claire was hinting at.

“Because a majority of my clients, who developed hypothyroidism because of your company’s diet drug, gained significant amounts of weight as a result of their conditions.” Claire reiterated a little annoyed her opposing council was downplaying her clients suffering.

“The drug was proven to be highly effective for facilitating weight loss and enhancing physical performance in our clinical trials. We had no way of knowing…” Harvey began to make excuses before Claire cut him off.

“You had no way of knowing your product would be effective for women, the clinical trials for your companies diet supplement only used all male samples.” Claire barked, as her own emotions began to rise.

“That’s not an uncommon industry practice for non-prescription supplements.” Harvey barked back, before adding, “And to be clear, the product was very effective for women.”

“It was effective for older women, and overweight women. That’s not all women. Is it?” Claire tactfully questioned.

“My company didn’t anticipate that a significant number of women without weight issues would take our diet supplement. That’s not our fault. We didn’t create diet culture. If anything, it’s society’s fault.” Harvey shot back, raising his voice.

“Cut the bullsh*t. It was negligent for your company to market the drug so heavily toward young women and not expect them to buy it.” Claire raised her voice to match Harvey’s.

Letting out a big sigh, Harvey shook his head and decided to address the bigger question before them, “At the end of the day what have you got to prove emotional distress?”

“I’ve got over 200 sworn statements from my clients. Soon to be more!” Claire proclaimed, as she gave Kate a nudge and continued, “You really don’t think it can be emotionally distressful for a woman to develop a thyroid condition and gain weight when she’s taking a drug to specifically help her lose weight or improve her physical conditioning? Young female athletes were buying these like hot cakes! And not just for vanity!”

Harvey had read all the statements in the file. Claire made a good point, but he couldn’t let her know that. She was getting heated with him. He’d been waiting to get under her skin since they first started negotiations. It was clear to him that Claire’s empathy for her clients personally stemmed from her own issues with her weight. Claire was quite an obese young lady, nothing like the athletically thick blonde sitting next to her. Maybe he could exploit that insecurity he sensed just beneath her professional facade. Clearing his throat and taking a condescending tone, Harvey countered, “Maybe if your clients ate fewer hot cakes, they wouldn’t have felt the need for our drug in the first place. We’ve taken the drug off the market temporarily. We paid our fine to the FDA. In their report...”

“You know as well as I do that the current head of the FDA is a former member of Preston Pharmaceuticals board of directors!” Claire growled, “We are asking for 34.7 million for pain and suffering, 1.5 times the cost of the medical damages. I’m not backing down on this.”

“So, in total you’re asking for what? 55.8 million?” Harvey figured, as he leaned back and laughed, “You’re dreaming if you think we are going to agree to that!”

“Stop downplaying this! Emotional distress, particularly from weight gain is a big deal!” Claire urged not knowing she’d just talked herself into Harvey’s trap.

Without hesitation, Harvey grinned and let it rip, “You would know something about that wouldn’t you? It looks like you haven’t put the fork down in years.”

“Agh!” Claire snarled, as both she, Kate, and Kimmie looked awestruck by what the opposing lawyer had just said. Claire had been in heated negotiations before, she’d even seen parties yelling at each other before working out a settlement, but her weight had never been pointed out like this before. Especially by such a handsome guy. Claire couldn’t help, but blush fiercely. She was a vastly overweight woman being fat-shamed by a very attractive and successful man. Suddenly she didn’t feel like a tough lawyer. She felt inferior.

Unable to utter a reply, Claire was thankful when the mediator stepped in to break the silence, “Maybe now is a good time to take a 10-minute recess?”

“I would say so.” Kate uttered under her breath, as she stood up and helped get Claire standing on her feet.

“Fine by me.” Harvey hummed pleased that he’d hopefully broken the young lawyer’s confidence before she’d gotten the better of him.