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"                      <p class=\"imgtitle\">McGraw</p>           CHARLESTON -- CVS Pharmacy and other defendants in a lawsuit filed by outside counsel hired by state Attorney General Darrell McGraw have removed the case to federal court.<br /><br />McGraw sued CVS, Kmart, Kroger, Target, Wal-Mart and Walgreen in Boone County in August, alleging the companies regularly overcharge for generic prescription drugs. U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver is now presiding over the case.<br /><br />McGraw hired Bailey & Glasser and DiTrapano Barrett & DiPiero to pursue the case. He also hired them to sue Rite-Aid in a separate action that makes the same allegations.<br /><br />Rite-Aid also removed its suit to federal court, arguing that it involves federal Medicaid funds.<br /><br />The two firms have contributed more than $60,000 to McGraw's campaign fund over the years, including $11,800 for his 2008 race against Republican Dan Greear.<br /><br />West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, a legal watchdog group, said McGraw hiring campaign contributors is a frequent problem.<br /><br />\"Similar pay-to-play allegations have created a political earthquake in Pennsylvania recently, and unfortunately for West Virginia the practice appears to be far too commonplace for Attorney General McGraw as well,\" CALA Executive Director Richie Heath said.<br /><br />McGraw's highest-profile cases in which he hired outside counsel that contributed to his campaigns are his 2001 suit against OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma that resulted in more than one-third of a $10 million settlement going to the attorneys and a settlement with Visa and MasterCard that yielded $3.9 million in attorneys fees.<br /><br />McGraw's office has a similar disdain for CALA. Chief Deputy Attorney General Fran Hughes feels the group's grassroots image is a sham, and that it is funded by out-of-state corporate interests.<br /><br />Hughes approached former Executive Director Steve Cohen after a hearing in Wheeling and said it was dishonest to call his group a watchdog when it was a business group.<br /><br />\"One of these days you will be exposed, and you will get your due,\" she told Cohen.<br /><br />Cohen had asked a state judge to demand information that showed the $3.9 million the attorneys requested in the Visa/MasterCard case is justified. The judge denied his request.<br /><br />Last year, Hughes said CALA's objective is \"to foster a legal environment that shields its contributors from accountability when they break the law.\"<br /><br />A recent settlement in McGraw's case against Eli Lilly & Co. yielded $6.75 million for outside counsel. Heath also mentioned that court records show outside counsel may have earned more than $3,000 per hour for their work on the Visa/MasterCard case."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://wvrecord.com/stories/510596861-mcgraw-s-drug-pricing-suit-removed-to-federal-court>