When a trial attorney brags to the press about driving down the stock price of a company that continuously prevails in court, it’s time to ask some hard questions.

That’s how Mark Lanier, a Houston-based trial attorney, described the strategy behind his high-profile case built around health scares that do not square with the facts and the evidence. In a CNBC interview, Lanier acknowledged he was working to drive Johnson & Johnson’s stock down to “get their attention” and force a settlement.