Local governments seek negotiating power in opioid lawsuit

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Lawyers suing over the toll of opioids asked a judge Friday to allow a structure for all 25,000 municipal and county governments in the U.S. to be paid – if a settlement can be reached with companies that make and distribute powerful prescription painkillers.

The approach, if approved, would create dueling negotiating systems as state governments are also in collective settlement negotiations with the drug industry.

The unified approach on behalf of municipalities also would help the manufacturers and distributors by defining a finalized group of entities benefiting from a settlement, said Joseph Rice, a South Carolina-based attorney representing local governments in the complaint.

“If you’re a corporation trying to address this problem, you need to get closure, you need to put it behind you,” Rice said Friday. “If you’re going to put significant resources into the resolution, you’ve got to know it’s behind you. The only way to do that is to get releases from everybody that’s got a potential claim.” The unified approach on behalf of municipalities also would help the manufacturers and distributors by defining a finalized group of entities benefiting from a settlement, said Joseph Rice, a South Carolina-based attorney representing local governments in the complaint.

The motion filed Friday requests the creation of a negotiating class “for the specific purpose of creating a unified body to enter into further negotiations with defendants,” according to the filing. “It is neither aimed at being the vehicle for litigation or settlement.”

Hundreds of local governments and other entities, such as hospitals, have accused pharmaceutical companies of downplaying the addictive nature of opioids and prescription painkillers largely blamed for one of the deadliest drug crises in U.S. history. Opioids include prescription and illicit drugs.

The complaints are being overseen by Cleveland-based U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. He previously ruled that lawsuits filed by the Ohio counties of Cuyahoga, which includes Cleveland, and Summit County, which includes Akron, will be heard first this October.

A trial on claims made by West Virginia’s Huntington and Cabell counties will be next, followed by Cleveland and Akron’s claims.