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In an October 24, 2019 Law360 article, Seeger Weiss founding partner Stephen Weiss spoke about his work representing former employees of Life Spine Inc., a medical device maker accused of paying surgeons to use and promote their products.
The article reads, in part:
Life Spine Inc. and two executives have agreed to pay nearly $6 million total to settle the federal government’s False Claims Act suit accusing the medical device maker and the executives of paying surgeons to use and promote their products.
In a series of filings Wednesday, the government told a New York federal judge it has reached settlements with Life Spine, CEO Michael Butler and Vice President Richard Greiber totaling about $5.99 million to resolve the government’s claims against them. Life Spine will shoulder the lion’s share of the payout — $5.5 million — while Butler will cough up $375,000 plus interest and Greiber will have to pay $115,000, according to the government.
Stephen A. Weiss of Seeger Weiss LLP, an attorney for the former Life Spine employees, told Law360 on Thursday that his clients still have individual retaliation claims that will move forward.
“It was a very positive outcome and I’m pleased the parties came together in the manner they did,” he said. “This was an ability to pay settlement, meaning that the defendants had limited funds with which to settle the claims. Under those circumstances the government did an outstanding job in resolving the claims at the amounts that they did.”
The former Life Spine employees, through relator BNHT LLC, are represented by Stephen A. Weiss and Christopher L. Ayers of Seeger Weiss LLP.