$10,000,000 – Death Case

Tommy Hastings handled this wrongful death case that was hailed by several media outlets as the first civil verdict in the country against a “pill mill”. The decedent was a veteran who was unable to make his appointment at the VA for his pain medication. He visited a local pain clinic and was prescribed medications that were double the strength of his regular medication. Unbeknownst to him, this clinic was only in the business of prescribing opiates for profit and did not use legitimate medical providers or standards. The decedent accidentally overdosed on the medication. Tommy agreed to represent the family and tirelessly uncovered a vast criminal conspiracy involving a physician, a sheriff’s deputy, and a medical recruiter. The jury found all of these parties responsible and assessed damages at $10,000,000 including punitive damages. The physician surrendered his license, the deputy resigned from the department and the recruiter was forced to sell everything to pay the judgment. The publicity from the case helped spur the passage of the first “pill mill” legislation in Texas.