After chiding plaintiff's attorneys for clogging the courts with meritless claims, Judge Janis Graham Jack of the U.S. District Court, Corpus Christi division of the Southern District of Texas has ordered Houston law firm O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle to pay one percent of the defendants' costs, expenses and attorney's fees connected with silicosis hearings held February 2005.

Known as the Silica Products Liability Litigation, the mass-tort case consolidated the claims of more than 10,000 plaintiffs, each of whom allegedly has the lung ailment known as silicosis. In a mid-July ruling, Judge Jack noted that 9,000 of the plaintiffs in the case reported visiting more than 8,000 doctors for various reasons, but the silicosis diagnoses for these 9,000 came from only 12 doctors. These doctors, the judge added, were not the plaintiffs' treating physicians, did not work in the same city or even the same state as the plaintiffs, and were affiliated with law firms and mobile x-ray screening companies. Judge Jack found that the total amount for defendant's costs was $825,000, and levied a sanction of $8,250 against O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle.