By Richard Lawson ( June 18, 2018, 12:24 PM EDT) -- In a slow but steady trickle of filings over the past 12 months, starting with Ohio, 23 state attorneys general have brought lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. While this is remarkable in its own right, even more noteworthy is that of the last six states to sue — all of which filed in a coordinated effort on May 15 — several were leading the large bipartisan multistate investigation. The decision by prominent and bipartisan states such as Texas, North Carolina and Florida to litigate will have interesting repercussions on the prospect of a universal settlement with the attorneys general. And of course, it is difficult to see how additional state court actions by these attorneys general will ease the burden on achieving resolution in the more than 500 cases currently consolidated in multidistrict litigation in the Northern District of Ohio....