Heir: Sacklers won’t settle unless freed from opioid suits
Members of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma won’t contribute billions of dollars to a legal settlement unless they get off the hook for all current and future lawsuits over the company’s activities, one of them told a court Tuesday in a rare public appearance. David Sackler, grandson of one of the brothers […]
Oklahoma sues three major opioid distributors
The state of Oklahoma, which last year won a court verdict against opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, filed suit Monday against three mammoth drug distributors, accusing them of contributing to the drug crisis by indiscriminately sending billions of painkillers across the country. Oklahoma State Attorney General Mike Hunter said McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen [&helli[...]
Opioid makers, distributors probed by U.S. prosecutors
Federal prosecutors are investigating the role that at least six drugmakers and distributors played in the flow of opioids into cities and towns across the U.S., the latest turn in the crisis that has ensnared dozens of companies around the world. Pharma companies Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Mallinckrodt […]
State AGs dangle $18 billion potential settlement, but fail to delay federal opioid trial
WASHINGTON – An 11th-hour bid to delay a landmark federal opioid trial failed after a group of state attorneys general tried to persuade U.S. District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster to give them more time to craft a settlement in their own cases, according to people with familiar with the events. They told Polster they […]
High-profile trial over who should pay for the opioid crisis begins Wednesday
CLEVELAND – The U.S. opioids epidemic has claimed more than 400,000 lives and left millions of people addicted, strained health care, law enforcement and social service systems, cost governments billions, and bankrupted the best-known manufacturer of narcotic painkillers. Now, 12 ordinary people will decide whether drug companies should be held responsible for the worst drug […]
Appellate court rejects requests to halt landmark opioid trial
An appellate court on Thursday rejected a last-ditch request by Ohio to halt a landmark trial on whether drug companies are responsible for the opioid epidemic, ruling the bid did not meet the strict test for such an extraordinary move. A second judicial panel rejected another bid by several drug companies to disqualify the judge […]
Cities push opioid lawsuits against family that owns Purdue
Local government lawsuits against the family that owns Purdue Pharma should be allowed to proceed even as the company attempts to reach a nationwide settlement in bankruptcy court over the toll of the opioids crisis, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The filing by 19 cities and towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and […]
After bankruptcy filing, Purdue Pharma may not be off hook
Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in the first step in a complex, multibillion-dollar plan by the maker of OxyContin to settle thousands of lawsuits brought against it by state and local governments over the nation’s deadly opioid disaster. The company and members of the Sackler family, which owns it, expressed sympathy but not responsibility. “Like […]
Judge vowed to tackle opioid crisis; drug companies say that’s sign of bias
For the better part of two years, U.S. District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster has urged some of the nation’s most combative lawyers to craft a settlement that would funnel billions of dollars from drug companies to cities and counties ravaged by the opioid epidemic. The judge, who has wrestled with what legal experts describe […]
New York inmates sue over prison crackdown on painkillers
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A group of inmates is suing the New York state prison system over its efforts to crack down on prescription drug abuse, saying they are being forced to live with chronic pain because some medications have become too difficult to get behind bars. The lawsuit, filed in federal court Monday, takes […]
Big Pharma ordered to face cities’ opioid claims
Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health and other makers and distributors of opioid painkillers must face lawsuits claiming they banded together to wrongfully push sales of the addictive pills, a judge ruled as the first federal trial over the medicines looms next month. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster ruled Tuesday that juries must decide whether to […]
Health commissioner offers Narcan training
Monroe County Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Mendoza visited the Monroe County Bar Association Friday to train a group of people to use Narcan to save a person suffering an opioid overdose. In the past 18 months or so, Mendoza has done about 150 similar presentations and training at a variety of places, such as nonprofit […]
Case Digests
- Fourth Department – Negligent performance: Rosenthal v. Syracuse University, et al.
- Second Circuit – Visual Artists Rights Act: Kerson v. Vermont Law School Inc.
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Former foreclosure referee: Opinion 22-157
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – College honorarium: Opinion 22-156
- Second Circuit – Reasonable accommodation: Tafolla v. Heilig
- Fourth Department – Labor Law: Primisch v. Peroxychem LLC
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Judicial candidacy: Opinion 22-155
- Fourth Department – Defamation: Lavine v. Glavin
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Law clerk: Opinion 22-154
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Review of another judge’s actions: Opinion 22-153
- NYS Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics – Charitable contributions: Opinion 22-150
- Second Circuit – Class action settlement: Moses v. The New York Times Company
Law News
- Appeals court upholds conviction
- Federal lawsuit reinstated against jail officer over strip search, delayed release
- Hyzon to pay $25M penalty to settle alleged fraud charges by SEC
- NY appeals court reinstates lawsuit over contract to remove snow
- Fourth Department affirms $400K judgment in contract dispute
- Fourth Department affirms decision in NY property dispute
- Greenlight Networks selects Buffalo-based attorney as general counsel
- Barclay Damon hires attorney Matt Smith