July 28, 2021
Drug distributors ended their bellwether case in West Virginia on Wednesday with a declaration that opioids piled up there because of doctors, legislators, health officials, the DEA — and the state's just plain unhealthy people.
July 28, 2021
Endo Pharmaceuticals and its Arnold & Porter lawyers are making "incredibly belated" discovery disclosures in multidistrict opioid litigation after a severe punishment for discovery violations in a separate opioid case, and an explanation under oath is needed, an Illinois federal judge heard Wednesday.
July 27, 2021
Lawyers for a small Appalachian county began closing arguments Tuesday in a West Virginia trial seen as an important test of liability for the opioid epidemic, arguing that the "Big Three" drug distributors' "mountainous" shipments fed multiple waves of addiction.
July 23, 2021
A two-day closing marathon in a bellwether opioid crisis trial in West Virginia federal court is set to start Tuesday after the city and county at the heart of the case battled in recent days to reinforce their position that distributors weren't invisible middlemen but causes of the problem.
July 21, 2021
Wednesday's $26 billion offer from four drug companies to settle thousands of opioid crisis lawsuits might mark the beginning of the end for opioid litigation more broadly — but only if the offer is actually accepted, which appears far from certain.
July 21, 2021
The New York attorney general and six other state attorneys general on Wednesday formally announced a global opioid settlement worth $26 billion with Johnson & Johnson and the nation's three largest drug distributors.
July 20, 2021
Negotiators are expected to announce this week that they've hammered out the fine print on global opioid settlements worth $26 billion — including roughly $2.5 billion for attorney fees and costs — with Johnson & Johnson and the nation's largest drug distributors, a source close to the talks said Monday.
July 09, 2021
Native American law practitioners are anticipating developments in clashes over pipeline projects affecting tribal lands, white farmers' challenges in multiple federal courts to American Rescue Plan funding for minority farmers, and a fight over the environmental and religious rights fallout from a proposed Arizona copper mine.
July 09, 2021
Long-awaited trials over the opioid crisis have started and the first federal bellwether case against major pharmacies is scheduled to kick off this fall, capturing product liability attorneys' attention for the second half of 2021.
June 23, 2021
The Wisconsin Legislature has passed legislation giving its finance committee the power to greenlight a settlement in the sprawling multidistrict litigation against pharmaceutical companies over the opioid litigation, although the Badger State's attorney general on Wednesday called the legislation unconstitutional.