Personal injury firm Simmons Hanly Conroy is being accused of crossing the line from zealous advocacy into fraud and civil conspiracy in a lawsuit filed May 10 in Illinois federal court that claims the firm’s asbestos case strategy has encouraged perjury and obstructed discovery in an effort to secure large settlements.
The suit, filed by plastic pipe manufacturer J-M Manufacturing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, further accuses the firm and several of its attorneys of engaging in racketeering activities in its handling of asbestos-related claims, claiming Simmons Hanly “filed sham lawsuits, pursued baseless claims, and otherwise sought to extract money from J-M Manufacturing through a pattern of fraud, coercion, and the suppression of evidence.”