by
<a href="mailto:sharons@awcnet.org">Sharon Swanson</a>, <a href="mailto:brandona@awcnet.org">Brandon Anderson</a> | Aug 16, 2019
Progress towards a settlement in the massive federal opioid litigation has stalled, even as the financial and human costs continue to mount.
Progress towards a settlement in the massive federal opioid litigation has stalled, even as the financial and human costs continue to mount.
While 48 states have filed their own opioid lawsuits in their respective state courts, nearly 2,000 cities and counties have brought cases in federal court. Beginning in 2013 when the City of Chicago filed its opioid lawsuit, cities have played a huge role in addressing a public health crisis that has claimed more than 200,000 lives since 1999.
Most state attorneys general signed a letter opposing a proposal by the multitude of plaintiffs’ attorneys to form the country’s 33,000 cities, towns, counties, and tribes (even those that have not yet filed suit) into one negotiating group to help settle the opioid litigation. Proponents of this novel proposal point to the tobacco settlement of 1998 as a reason to allow cities and counties to negotiate for direct settlement payments. In 1998, the Master Tobacco Settlement resulted in payouts in excess of $250 billion with 46 states seeking reimbursement. Much of that money, by some estimates 90%, went to state legislatures for general state uses, with little making its way to local governments.
Local governments are on the front line of the opioid epidemic and believe they are better placed to put the settlement money to use. As Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson stated, “We are the ones answering the 911 calls, dealing with overdoses in our library bathrooms, seeing the impacts on families in our foster care system. The casualties have really been felt at the local level.”
United States District Court Judge Dan Polster appeared to be sympathetic to the cities’ argument, tying the plaintiffs’ proposal to form a local government negotiating group to the tobacco settlement that left locals out. Judge Polster stated that city and county lawsuits were filed to “ensure that doesn’t happen again.”
If settlement talks fail, the first trial setting is scheduled for October 21 in Cleveland, Ohio.
AWC will continue to provide updates on this issue.