Investigator orders court files in chiropractor class actions

Kevin McClain Investigations of Centralia has copied all court files in at least 10 Madison County class actions of the Lakin Law Firm.

McClain's interest centers on suits the Lakins filed before the national Class Action Fairness Act took effect in 2005.

In the suits chiropractors Frank Bemis, Richard Coy and Thomas Kaltenbronn complained that insurers improperly reduced payouts.

Freed & Weiss of Chicago joined the Lakins in the complaints.

Now Freed & Weiss and the Lakins litigate against each other for control of the class actions they filed together.

McClain's activity reflects interest from a third party, for neither the Lakins nor Freed & Weiss would need to copy the files.

After all, they created the files.

Before McClain ordered all the chiropractor cases, he ordered just one.

An April 23 docket entry in Bemis v. Cincinnati Insurance shows a copy request from Neeta McClintock of McClain Investigations.

On May 2 the copies were ready. The circuit clerk billed $65.25, for 261 pages at 25 cents a page.

On May 3, McClintock ordered nine more files.

On May 18, the copies were ready. The circuit clerk billed $419.50, for 1,678 pages.

In a May 23 interview McClain said he had 10 investigators in three states.

He said McClintock worked at Godfrey.

He said he started in the business in 1993 and opened an agency in 1998.

"We work on major civil and criminal cases," he said. "We have more than a hundred years of experience in our investigators."