July 20, 2021
Negotiators are expected to announce this week that they've hammered out the fine print on global opioid settlements worth $26 billion — including roughly $2.5 billion for attorney fees and costs — with Johnson & Johnson and the nation's largest drug distributors, a source close to the talks said Monday.
July 09, 2021
Native American law practitioners are anticipating developments in clashes over pipeline projects affecting tribal lands, white farmers' challenges in multiple federal courts to American Rescue Plan funding for minority farmers, and a fight over the environmental and religious rights fallout from a proposed Arizona copper mine.
July 09, 2021
Long-awaited trials over the opioid crisis have started and the first federal bellwether case against major pharmacies is scheduled to kick off this fall, capturing product liability attorneys' attention for the second half of 2021.
June 23, 2021
The Wisconsin Legislature has passed legislation giving its finance committee the power to greenlight a settlement in the sprawling multidistrict litigation against pharmaceutical companies over the opioid litigation, although the Badger State's attorney general on Wednesday called the legislation unconstitutional.
June 23, 2021
An Ohio federal judge said on Wednesday he wouldn't automatically throw out potential jurors in the national multidistrict opioid litigation because they are unvaccinated against COVID-19, undoing an earlier order requiring juror vaccinations.
June 22, 2021
Limiting the pool of potential jurors to only those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 could unfairly skew the jury in national multidistrict opioid litigation, pharmacies are telling an Ohio federal judge.
June 17, 2021
A special master in multidistrict opioid litigation has shot down Walmart's assertion that a requested deposition of its CEO is "harassing on its face," ruling that the grilling can go forward.
June 08, 2021
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said Monday that MSP Recovery's opioid suit against CVS belongs in Ohio federal court as part of multidistrict litigation there, declining to vacate an order conditionally transferring the action.
June 07, 2021
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on Monday created a new MDL in California federal court for a barrage of lawsuits over McKinsey & Co.'s role in prescription opioid marketing, keeping the cases out of the existing opioid MDL in Ohio federal court.
June 04, 2021
The Ohio federal judge presiding over the opioid multidistrict litigation on Thursday split five upcoming bellwether trials against pharmacies into two phases, trying claims by local governments that the pharmacies created a public nuisance by overlooking suspicious orders first.