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He said if a case can't be resolved, attorneys will file a lawsuit. "But in large-scale litigation like this, it's not very often," Simon said. Hinda Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Wright County Egg, declined comment. Sarah Brew, the attorney for Hillandale, said few lawsuits are filed in most food-borne cases, with most complaints being settled out of court. "But it's a little too early to make that call in this outbreak," Brew said. Brew said Hillandale has filed responses to some lawsuits, asserting restaurants who used Hillandale eggs are to blame for contamination that led to customers getting sick. She declined further comment. States generally have a one- to three-year statute of limitations to file cases. "Historically ... people get agreements with the defendants that the statute of limitations is not running on these cases to give them time to negotiate," Simon said. Ryan Osterholm, an attorney with Minneapolis-based PritzkerOlsen, has filed one lawsuit in Minnesota and said he has received up to five calls a day from people claiming to have become sick from eating tainted eggs. But like the other attorneys, Osterholm said it can be difficult to prove. "Not until we do more research and find out it's the same strain as what was found in the eggs can we be sure they are part of this outbreak," Osterholm said. Pamela Sotoodeh, a Chicago attorney who filed a lawsuit in federal court in Illinois on behalf of six plaintiffs, is the only attorney seeking class-action status for the case. She said that process could take two to three years.
[Associated
Press;
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