September 14, 2019
Drug distributors and pharmacies on Saturday launched a bold attack on the Ohio federal judge supervising multidistrict opioid litigation, accusing him of appearing deeply biased against them and deserving of disqualification.
September 13, 2019
A team of six top attorneys will now be representing a novel “negotiation class" on behalf of cities and counties in the opioid multidistrict litigation with the hopes of hammering out a global settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors accused of fueling the devastating epidemic. Here are the six negotiators and some of their biggest cases and notable achievements.
September 11, 2019
The Sixth Circuit has rejected a bid by two Endo units to order an Ohio federal court to vacate its order disqualifying a former U.S. attorney and her firm BakerHostetler from representing the companies in sprawling Ohio multidistrict litigation involving racketeering and corrupt practices charges against various opioid makers and distributors.
September 11, 2019
In a possible turning point for a wave of opioid-crisis lawsuits, an Ohio federal judge on Wednesday approved a novel "negotiation class" that could encompass every U.S. city and county in hopes of striking global settlements with pharmaceutical companies.
September 11, 2019
Purdue Pharma LP and its owners, the Sackler family, have reached a tentative deal to settle roughly 2,000 opioid suits brought by local governments, states and tribes, with the Sacklers agreeing to pay $3 billion from their own fortune, a source involved with the negotiations told Law360 on Wednesday.
September 10, 2019
Purdue Pharma and other opioid makers and distributors can't avoid racketeering and corrupt practices charges in sprawling Ohio multidistrict litigation because the suing cities and Native nations have plausibly alleged the companies "associated together for the common purpose of expanding the prescription opioid market," a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
September 09, 2019
Thirteen states and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday backed a recent bid by the Ohio attorney general to block an upcoming bellwether trial in multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis, telling the Sixth Circuit that the states are the chief guardians of their citizens' welfare.
September 06, 2019
Mallinckrodt said Friday it will pay $24 million and donate up to $6 million in generic drugs to resolve claims from two Ohio counties that are behind the lead bellwether cases in multidistrict litigation against opioid manufacturers.
September 05, 2019
Ohio's attorney general is making an eleventh-hour bid to block the first bellwether trial in multidistrict litigation pitting local governments against opioid makers and distributors, but to do so, he must first clear a high bar in showing the state government will be harmed by a trial it is not party to. Here, Law360 explores four key takeaways from the attorney general’s surprise gambit.
September 04, 2019
A jury will decide whether, under Ohio law, the opioid epidemic constitutes an "ongoing public nuisance," an Ohio federal judge ruled Wednesday in the multidistrict opioid litigation's lead bellwether cases, finding that underlying factual issues must first be determined at trial.