This is the second part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I before continuing.
Pat arrived at the conference room early, checking the email thread to make sure there were no last-minute cancellations or location changes. She had read the complaint against the company three times, but she had still printed out a copy and brought it with her – it was glowing with her highlights and notes.
Dan was the first to arrive after Pat. “Oh, good, you’re here. Would you be a dear and fetch me an extra-large coffee? Black – I’m trying to cut back on sugar.”
“I’m not here to take coffee orders. I’m here to discuss the lawsuit, and if I’m getting coffee instead of learning about the situation and taking notes, we could miss key elements in our overall messaging, which will make our arguments look weak, both to the public and the politicians, which will render this whole meeting pretty much moot, wouldn’t it?”
“Geez, don’t get your panties in a wad. I had no idea you had such a high opinion of your own job.”
“As opposed to your job, which is …?” Pat knew exactly what Dan did, but messing with him was just too easy.
He glared at her, she smiled and said, “I’m glad you’re the first one here because I have some questions about the third charge.”
“I bet you do,” Dan grumbled under his breath, but loud enough for Pat to hear. “Look, we can get someone to go over all the legal language with you later.”
“I spent two years as a legal assistant. I assure you I have no problem with the language. What I do have a problem with is their implication that a few bad apples misusing our products somehow negates all the good we’ve done.”
“It’s hardly a few bad apples.”
“They list less than ten.”
“The list is just the people who have agreed to be named in the lawsuit so far. More will be coming. I would expect someone who spent two years as a legal assistant to know how class actions work.” He raised an eyebrow and she pressed her lips together, fuming but caught without an immediate response.
The rest of the meeting did not go much better. Although Pat had known there was an opioid epidemic, she had been incredulous to hear the government was blaming them for it just because the medications they made happened to contain some opioids.
“For this second charge, I’m going to need every advertisement, print and video, we have ever produced,” said Mike, the head of the company’s legal department.
Pat made a note to get him the materials, but as she did, she asked, “Ever? The complaint only gives a time frame starting in 2015. Do you really need our materials from before that?”
“There’s no telling what the prosecution will dig up, and even if I object that it’s irrelevant, they’ll still have gotten it in the minds of the jury. Striking something from the record is easier than striking it from the minds of the jurors, so I need as many materials as I can get my hands on so I can launch a pre-emptive strike against absolutely anything they might bring up.”
“OK, but what could they possibly say against us? We’ve always followed the law to the letter when it comes to discussing possible side effects.”
“There’s false advertising, and then there’s misleading consumers. The latter is much more broad, and more difficult to define, and I’m afraid that’s the charge they’ve chosen to lay against us.”
“How could we have misled consumers if we included the potential side effects?”
“By minimizing the side effects and overemphasizing the benefits. Oh, and apparently addiction is a side effect we never mentioned, and the fact that we were never legally required to mention it doesn’t appear to be an issue.”
“Matt and I have a list of testimonials that will prove we never overestimated the benefits of our products.”
“Testimonials are good, but they aren’t enough. The prosecution will just say they’re outliers, and point to their clients, who they claim suffered more harm than good as a result of using our products.”
“But some people have gotten their lives back thanks to our products.”
“And some people have lost their lives thanks to our products.”
“Whoa, take it easy Mike,” said Dan. “Are you sure you’re on our side?”
“Of course I am, but in order to do my job, I have to anticipate how the prosecution is going to do their job, and right now, I’m just saying what they’re going to tell me when we go toe to toe in the courtroom.”