Stuart Maue Completes Nation’s Largest Legal Audit

Stuart Maue, the nation’s oldest and premier legal auditing firm, has completed work as the legal auditor and testifying expert in the largest attorneys’ fee dispute litigation in the history of the United States. The litigation involved Purdue Pharma L.P.’s $400 million claim for attorney fees and expenses resulting from defense of its prescription pain killer, OxyContin. Purdue Pharma had asked its insurer, Steadfast Insurance Co., a unit of Zurich Insurance Co. of Switzerland, to reimburse it for all costs associated with its defense of the litigation. The Wall Street Journal reports that Steadfast will be paying approximately $200 million.

“Stuart Maue is proud to have been able to participate in this significant case and display the capabilities of our legal auditing team and data warehouse,” said Dr. Harry J. Maue, founder of the legal auditing industry and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stuart Maue. “We are pleased to provide our clients the opportunity to utilize every possible benefit from the experience we have obtained over the past 21 years of auditing some of the most complex cases in this country. The data warehouse, Oracle 10g, brought all of this information to the fingertips of experts and counsel as they prepared for this complex case and allowed them to create detailed exhibits highlighting the issues presented in this case.”

The legal audit began with the creation of a computer database from data contained in the 200 boxes of invoices in the litigation. Stuart Maue’s team of legal auditors, comprised of attorneys and accountants, reviewed and analyzed over $400 million in fees and expenses from over 70 law firms, plus other service vendors defending nearly 1,400 drug related injury claims. The review focused on more than 1 million billing entries from 322 partners, 849 associates, and 1,023 paralegals billing over 1.2 million hours of services, plus associated costs and expenses. Stuart Maue established and maintained a single interactive database which contained all of this information in a readily accessible manner. Stuart Maue’s database was the only accurate source of comprehensive data available to the parties; not even Purdue was able to provide a complete accounting of its own data. The data warehouse allowed quick and accurate retrieval of the most detailed information.