BEAUMONT – The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has no information on receiving or approving any contingent contracts between Jefferson County and the two area trial lawyers it hired to represent the county in opioid litigation.
Over the past two years, dozens of Texas municipalities, including the state itself, have filed opioid lawsuits, the majority of which have been ushered into an MDL in Harris County.
A fairly fresh arrival to the opioid MDL is Jefferson County, which signed a contingent contract with Beaumont attorneys Mitchell Toups and Richard Coffman back in May.
As required by HB 2826, the OAG must now approve contingent contracts between Texas counties and the trial lawyers they hire to pursue lawsuits on their behalf.
On Nov. 30, The Record submitted an open records request to the OAG seeking: “Any records related to the OAG receiving/approving any contingent contracts between Jefferson County and Beaumont attorneys Richard Coffman and Mitchell Toups in the past six months.”
The OAG replied on Dec. 8 with the following response: “The OAG has reviewed its files and has no information responsive to your request.”
The Record also asked Toups and Coffman if they had indeed submitted the contract for approval, but the two attorneys declined to respond.
Jefferson County granted Toups and Coffman a flat attorney’s fee of 25 percent of its recovery, according to the contract.
In addition to Jefferson County, Toups and Coffman’s opioid suit also includes seven more plaintiff counties - Castro, Colorado, Madison, Roberts, San Saba, Shackelford and Terrell.
The plaintiff counties accuse the manufactures and distributors of creating an opioid epidemic by pushing their drugs on vulnerable Americans, leaving local governments and families to clean up the mess.
The suit also includes two plaintiff school districts, Irving ISD and Texarkana ISD.
The districts claim they suffered decreased funding due to the diversion of funds to address the opioid epidemic.
Opioid litigation aside, Toups and Coffman are also trolling for COVID-19 wrongful death claimants.