Troy King (R)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Legal Newsline)-Attorney General Troy King said Thursday he would like judges in five counties to throw out lawsuits against a group of pharmacies, saying that the suits are frivolous.
CVS Caremark Corp., Rite Aid Corp., Wal-Mart Stores and Walgreen Co. are named in the lawsuits that claim that their pharmacists filled prescriptions with generic medications without physicians' authorizations.
King says that the deceptive practices lawsuits brought by private attorneys on behalf of five district attorneys are frivolous and should be dropped and that he will use his authority as the state's top attorney to do so.
One such lawsuit has been dismissed in Colbert County. Other counties with suits pending are Tallapoosa, Wilcox, Autauga and Jefferson's Bessemer Division.
"These suits represent a contortion of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act in ways that those who wrote it would no longer recognize. Never before has anyone suggested that this law permits the suing of businesses in Alabama -- county by county, in the name of the state by private lawyers who have not been authorized by the attorney general to do so," King said. "These actions threaten every business in Alabama and are an end run around the tort reform for which so many of us have fought."