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Pa. opioid lawsuits plod along as companies demand 'critical information to defend themselves'
MEDIA (Legal Newsline) - Drug distributors facing about 50 opioid lawsuits in Pennsylvania have asked the judge overseeing the litigation to order sanctions against plaintiffs for repeatedly refusing to honor deadlines to turn over evidence including information about how state and local governments have handled the opioid crisis they blame on the drug industry. -
Years of legal bills before chance to defend self: 'Just the way' U.S. legal system is, PFAS judge says
CHARLESTON, S.C. (Legal Newsline) – It’s just a fact of life that companies can get tangled up in expensive litigation that goes on for years before they can start defending themselves. -
Big plaintiffs firms circle government clients to score PFAS litigation contracts
MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – A memo from Miami-Dade County shows that the nation’s prominent plaintiffs firms are competing with and aligning to each other in the hopes of grabbing the most important clients – local governments. -
Motley Rice leading opioid MDL but doesn't want new case to 'languish in a pile' there
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) – Even one of the firms leading the federal opioid litigation doesn’t seem to want its cases there. -
Lawyers leading opioid litigation to negotiate their payday; Judge rejects request for 7%
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Saying it is almost inevitable they will negotiate their own slice of a multibillion-dollar settlement before it is done, the judge overseeing federal multidistrict opioid litigation refused to order the parties to set aside a set percentage to pay the fees of plaintiff lawyers leading the MDL. -
Plaintiffs lawyer calls out wealthy colleagues for taking millions in taxpayer-funded loans
Plaintiff lawyers availed themselves of more than $160 million in taxpayer-funded loans under the Paycheck Protection Program designed to protect jobs during the Covid-19 crisis, even though most such law firms operate on a contingency-fee model and are accustomed to financing themselves. -
While they wait on opioid jackpot, plaintiffs firms take federal loans during pandemic
Law firms leading multidistrict litigation against the opioid industry have borrowed as much as $102 million under the federal Paycheck Protection Program designed to preserve jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The law firms said the loans were needed to pay some 3,000 employees. -
In South Carolina, the judge handling asbestos lawsuits is accused of plaintiff-friendly bias
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - Asbestos defendants have made increasingly vocal complaints about the judge in charge of South Carolina’s asbestos docket as she has overruled jury verdicts, ordered simultaneous trials in multiple counties and named an insurance company the “alter ego” of a long-defunct contracting company. -
An Ohio county pays $500K of its opioid settlement to a pharma lobbyist not listed on court records
AKRON, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - An Ohio county that settled opioid lawsuits last year for $105 million paid more than $1 million in legal fees to two law firms that never appeared on any of the court filings, including one associated with a prominent Washington lobbyist whose firm represented multiple companies being sued by the county. -
AGs unite to oppose opioid lawyers' attempt to take 7% of possible multibillion-dollar settlement
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) – Attorneys general from dozens of states are objecting to an attempt by attorneys litigating on behalf of various local government entities suing over the opioid crisis to secure a fee based on a global settlement that could be worth close to $50 billion. -
State AGs ask Sixth Circuit for control of opioid settlement talks
CINCINNATI (Legal Newsline) – The top legal officials in several states are complaining that their powers have been stolen by the federal judge overseeing more than 2,000 opioid lawsuits. -
'Wholly inadequate': Lawyers seek more opioid money by avoiding global settlement process
A proposed “negotiation class” to settle all opioid litigation by U.S. cities and counties could be in deep trouble, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit considers an appeal of the order creating the controversial class and lawyers in two states with big claims urge their clients to opt out before a Nov. 22 deadline. -
Opioid settlement hints at massive windfall for private lawyers who snagged government clients
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - It was a stroke of good luck for Cuyahoga and Summit counties in Ohio that U.S. District Judge Dan Polster selected them for the first bellwether trial out of thousands of other cities and counties that are blaming the opioid industry for the nation's addiction crisis. -
After fiery hearing, Purdue Pharma gets two-week break from opioid lawsuits
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) - The federal bankruptcy judge overseeing Purdue Pharma’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization granted the OxyContin manufacturer and its controlling Sackler family a two-week respite from opioid litigation to work on a settlement that appeases warring state attorneys general and a growing list of municipal and private plaintiffs. -
'Absolute panic' as cities, counties face deadline on opioid 'negotiation class'
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Cities and counties are worried and confused as they face a November deadline to join or opt out of an unprecedented “negotiation class” that could determine how much money they get from opioid litigation, a lawyer who represents Texas municipalities said. -
‘Business decision’: Former DEA official works for opioid lawyers but set standards for how many pills were made
Now, Rannazzisi is helping private lawyers pin the blame squarely on manufacturers and distributors of opioids, as well as pharmacies. A post-DEA alliance with trial lawyers has been worth six figures for Rannazzisi, who has been hailed as a whistleblower by those cheering attempts to prosecute the opioid industry for the nation’s addiction crisis. -
Major plaintiffs firms that snagged states as opioid clients have been shut out of settlement talks by judge
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Recognizing the growing conflict between states and municipalities that are separately suing the opioid industry, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster has removed lawyers that represent both states and cities from any role in negotiating a potential class action settlement of opioid claims. -
Opioid judge supports `negotiating class,’ tells critics like state AGs to `come up with a better model’
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - The federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors left little doubt he supports a plan developed by private lawyers to assemble an unprecedented “negotiating class” consisting of every city and county in the U.S. -
Ohio AG slams 'power grab' of private lawyers pushing the opioid litigation
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Stepping forcefully into a debate that has been brewing since private lawyers first started recruiting local governments to sue the opioid industry, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and the National Association of Attorneys General have urged the federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation to reject a proposed “negotiation class” consisting of every city and county in the country. -
Same day, different verdicts: Why do some juries think there is asbestos in talcum powder and others don't?
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – Judges continue to play a crucial role in the sprawling, possibly multibillion-dollar talcum powder litigation facing Johnson & Johnson by choosing how jurors will view the plaintiffs’ key expert.