Several Pennsylvania counties are fighting to keep control of their opioid lawsuits as the national law firm Simmons Hanly Conroy, with the active support of the companies it is suing, seeks to create what a rival attorney calls a litigation "cesspool."
The fight for control of Pennsylvania’s opioid litigation is not over, as Lehigh County is not happy that its case has been grouped in with more than 30 others and that lawyers it previously rejected have been tasked with overseeing the proceedings.
In an ominous sign for the opioid industry, a New York judge refused to dismiss any of the claims by eight counties against Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and other prescription opioid manufacturers, saying the plaintiffs had adequately pled violations of everything from consumer protection statutes to the common law of public nuisance.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - The latest wave of state lawsuits over the opioid crisis illustrates sharp differences emerging in how governments litigate these cases, both in whom they choose to sue and whether private lawyers stand to get a piece of the action.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The U.S. government wants a seat at the table as lawyers for hundreds of municipalities and other plaintiffs negotiate a potentially multibillion-dollar settlement of lawsuits over the opioid addiction crisis, citing its “substantial financial stake” in the matter and need to recover its own costs.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Legal Newsline) - A public fight between the Tennessee attorney general and counties that have filed separate lawsuits against the opioid industry could be the first of many similar conflicts as state AGs try to assert control over mushrooming litigation over the addiction crisis.
The federal appeals court ruled in January that the False Claims Act’s pre-2010 public disclosure bar prohibits a relator’s attorney from bringing the same claims with a new relator, or whistleblower.
A group of five pharmaceutical companies being investigated by state Attorney General Joseph Foster for their marketing of prescription opioids have filed motions with a state court to have the plaintiffs law firm barred, along with the enforcement of subpoenas from Foster’s office. The companies argue the firm has too much of a financial stake in the investigation.
