The dispute between LeClairRyan and Health Diagnostic Laboratory may be settled, but the contentions between HDL’s former executives and the Richmond-based law firm appear far from over, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported today. A bankruptcy judge approved the settlement agreement between LeClairRyan and HDL at the end of a four-hour hearing Thursday in which various executives’ attorneys argued against the agreement. The settlement, filed earlier this month, releases LeClairRyan from all the claims HDL had against it. It is not an admission of guilt on the part of the law firm, the document stipulates. Though HDL’s claims are not public record, they center on the legal advice — or lack thereof — that LeClairRyan may have given HDL while it worked for the downtown-based blood-testing laboratory. One issue frequently mentioned in court documents is the practice of paying process and handling fees to physicians who used HDL’s services. HDL paid unusually high process and handling fees during its heyday, before filing for bankruptcy in June 2015. The practice violated state and federal anti-kickback laws, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which investigated the practice and is as a result suing several former HDL executives.
