Peiffer Wolf: Possible Criminal Misconduct Seen in “Bombshell” Filing by Former UH Lab Director Paid to Lie Under Oath About Embryo Destruction
UH and its law firm, Tucker Ellis, are the parties named as being responsible for this pattern of deception.
An explosive court filing today in the long-running University Hospitals (UH) 4,000-embryo destruction scandal is “deeply disturbing” and calls into question the integrity of the legal proceedings to date, according to Cleveland law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway (Peiffer Wolf), which represents more than 100 families victimized by UH.
In the explosive filing, the former director of the UH laboratory where the freezer failed that led to the massive destruction of embryos says that (1) UH's lawyers instructed the deletion of incriminating evidence in order to hide UH’s misconduct, (2) told him to lie in a deposition to hide UH’s misconduct, and (3) secretly paid for the untruthful testimony. UH and its law firm, Tucker Ellis, are the parties named as being responsible for this pattern of deception.
Joseph Peiffer, managing partner and attorney, Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway, said: “These are bombshell findings that show UH and its law firm Tucker Ellis intentionally re-victimizing the same families that had their fertilized embryos and eggs destroyed. To describe this new assault on these families as callous and ruthless is an understatement. UH needs to come clean here and disavow this unlawful conduct.”
Adam Wolf, who has represented hundreds of victims of fertility center misconduct and is a shareholder with Peiffer Wolf, said: “This is without a doubt the most deeply disturbing legal filing I have seen in my entire career. The web of deceit laid out in the latest filing is devastating to the victims who settled based on a bogus set of ‘facts’ outlined by UH and its law firm. These allegations look like criminal conduct.”
Three years after the 4,000-embryo destruction at University Hospitals Fertility Clinic upended the lives of hundreds of Cleveland area and other Ohio families, UH is still fighting “tooth and nail” to avoid more than 500 families achieving justice, according to Cleveland law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway (Peiffer Wolf). In fact, UH recently doubled down on its hardball tactics by “fertility shaming” and attempting to out the identity of couples who wish to remain anonymous.
University Hospitals Fertility Clinic has admitted publicly that it “failed” in its handling of the large-scale embryo losses in March 2018. It initially under-reported the estimated number of lost embryos and eggs at 2,000, and it followed up weeks later with a more accurate number of 4,000.
Since then, UH has disclosed additional information on what actually happened at the lab, including that the freezer tank needed preventative maintenance, that it was manually filling the malfunctioning tank from the top, that the embryology lab ran out of liquid nitrogen, and that the remote alarm on the affected tank, which was designed to alert UH staff to temperature fluctuations, was turned off.
ABOUT PEIFFER WOLF
The law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway maintains offices in Cleveland, Youngstown, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Austin, and New Orleans. Peiffer Wolf has handled multiple cases in which fertility clinics were accused of either destroying or losing eggs and embryos. This is a highly technical area of law and science and, individuals seeking legal representation in the UH matter would be well advised to look to a law firm that has successfully handled such cases in the past.
EDITOR’S NOTE: To learn more about the fight for justice for UH embryo destruction victims, go to https://www.uhembryolawsuit.com/.
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