A contribution by lawyer Viviane Fischer
September 15, 2022
In my capacity as a member of the Corona Committee, I am repeatedly asked about the status of Dr. Reiner Fuellmich's class action lawsuit in the USA. Not only me, but all those who have closer or more distant dealings with the Committee. But the Corona Committee has nothing to do with the class action. The Committee is not a law firm and therefore cannot provide legal advice, and certainly not paid legal services, i.e. "any activity in specific third-party matters insofar as it requires a legal examination of the individual case". Moreover, legal services are not covered by the purpose of the Corona Committee.
The Corona Committee began its work in July 2020
As early as August 2020,
Dr Reiner Fuellmich spoke about the possibilities of a US class action in initial interviews.
According to the Wayback Machine
the website
www.corona-schadensersatzklage.de was first registered on 8 September 2020.
At that time, the lawyers Dr Reiner Fuellmich, Dr Justus Hoffmann, Antonia Fischer, Marcel Templin, Tobias Weissenborn and Cathrin Behn were introduced as team members. The latter two have been working for Dr. Reiner Fuellmich for many years. To what extent who is still involved today cannot be seen on the current version of the website.
It says "The strategy behind the planned US class action is accompanied by the lawyers already known from the Berlin "Corona Committee".
First and foremost, Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, LL.M. (UCLA) from Göttingen." The information of the involvement of "the lawyers from the Corona Committee" is misleading: I am a lawyer in the Corona Committee, but was never part of the team around the class action. In autumn 2020, I was absolutely against Dr Reiner Fuellmich coming out with the announcement of a class action possibility, possibly still against advance payment.
Although I considered the idea of a class action to be worth considering
in principle, I would have found it much better to write such a lawsuit, if it was a realistic option, within the shortest possible period of time, rather than to file an action - then also a political one - with great fanfare and only then offer German entrepreneurs to join. The question is to what extent advance payments from the entrepreneurs would have been necessary at all. The approach that a lawyer, similar to a doctor, is already paid for his "efforts", as is the case in Germany, is rather unusual in the US in the class action area. There, the contingency fee principle is usually applied to class actions, i.e. the plaintiffs do not pay the lawyers a fee. The lawyers therefore work at their own risk, because if the case is lost, the lawyers get nothing. If the case is won, however, a large part of the amount claimed falls to the litigating lawyers as a contingency fee. This can be up to 40 % of the sum, and then the lawyers' work is more than worthwhile.
In a video statement on 9 September 2022
lawyer Dr. Reiner Fuellmich now explained, among other things, that two lawsuits - one by lawyer
Dexter Reynefeldt in South Africa and one by lawyer
Michael Swinwood in Canada - were ("not exactly cheap") attempts to initiate the US class action lawsuit against the PCR evidence of SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting disadvantages for the plaintiffs, which he had advertised. The lawsuits in question were self-initiated by the two lawyers, for which only support was provided by explaining the context and arranging for expert witnesses.
Dr. Reiner Fuellmich has now also stated in his video statement that money from the German class action clients was paid out to participating lawyers or experts.
This statement is inaccurate.
Since almost all of these lawyers and experts were guests at the Corona Committee, I am concerned to correct the misstatement.
For the lawsuit in South Africa, the expert opinions by the microbiologist Prof Dr Sucharit Bhakdi, the physician Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, the biologist Prof Dr Ulrike Kämmerer and the psychologist Prof Dr Harald Walach were provided without fee ("pro bono" in the sense of a good cause).
In the South African case initiated by lawyer Dexter Reynefeldt
it was already a precondition that all parties involved would work without remuneration. Attorney Dexter Reynefeldt has stated: "We (myself or one of the South African attorneys) who worked on the South African case did not receive any money from Attorney Dr. Reiner Fuellmich. I hereby confirm that all experts who prepared expert reports for the South African case have not submitted invoices for the work done and have not received any monies/fees from the South African lawyers and me."
Prof Dr Harald Walach stated: "At a first Zoom meeting about the activities in the context of the lawsuit in South Africa, it was made clear by lawyer Dexter Reynefeldt that all those involved, including himself, would work pro bono and therefore the cooperation of the experts and consultants would also be expected pro bono, i.e. without monetary payment. At least that was the case with me and, to my knowledge, with others as well."
The Canadian lawyer Michael Swinwood clarified
with regard to the lawsuit in Canada, which Dr. Reiner Fuellmich described as a "first attempt", that he had also worked pro bono. He was not aware of any payments that had been made from the client funds in the class action. None of the above-mentioned experts were involved in these proceedings as expert witnesses.
However, the American expert Byram Bridle, who was commissioned, was provided - also pro bono - with the test assessment report from the proceedings before the Family Court in Weimar translated into English. Attorney Michael Swinwood has stated that he knows of no payment to Byram Bridle or even Dr. Christiane Grieb, a lawyer living in Canada and former student of Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, who was actually supposed to cooperate in the lawsuit.
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Kämmerer clarified
"Due to my secondary employment permit, I am only allowed to provide expert opinions free of charge. Against this background, it is particularly important to me that it is not suggested that I might have worked for remuneration. "
END OF ARTICLE
t.me
