Need Victims for Your Mass Lawsuit? Call Jesse Levine

On April 22, 2011, a Missouri resident named Linda Burke received a phone call from a woman who identified herself as “Sarah.” Burke didn’t know Sarah, but that didn’t stop the caller from asking some exceptionally personal questions. Had anyone in the Burke household died after taking a diabetes drug called Avandia? Sarah “refused to tell me who she worked for, [her] address, or phone number, and hung up,” Burke said later, according to state court records. At the time, Avandia’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, was besieged by lawsuits linking Avandia to an increased risk of heart attack. Burke and scores of other Missouri residents wanted no part of the Avandia litigation, court records show. “Getting an avalanche of calls,” a consumer named Walter Lechtreck complained to the state’s attorney general. “They’re soliciting about a lawsuit against this pharmaceutical company about Avandia. I’m getting this almost daily. Twice already today.”

After investigating, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster discovered that a company called Internet Technology Partnerships was behind the solicitations. ITP has ties to a network of websites including MedRecallNews, ServicesToLawyers, and Pearl-Shucker.com, among others. These companies do law firm marketing and identify clients for mass-injury lawsuits against pharmaceutical manufacturers. They’re all operated by Jesse Levine of Norristown, Pa.