October 01, 2019
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $20.4 million to resolve claims by two Ohio counties that were going to be at the center of the first bellwether trial later this month in multidistrict litigation against drugmakers blamed for the U.S. opioid crisis.
October 01, 2019
The Ohio attorney general's new campaign to torpedo the first bellwether trial in multidistrict opioid litigation is happening way too late and misconstrues key legal issues, the MDL's supervising judge told the Sixth Circuit on Tuesday.
October 01, 2019
Drug distributors on Tuesday asked the Sixth Circuit to disqualify the Ohio federal judge supervising multidistrict opioid litigation based on perceived bias, a dramatic request that comes three weeks before a milestone trial.
September 26, 2019
A first-of-its-kind "negotiation class" designed to seek nationwide settlements in the multidistrict opioid litigation flouts federal law and improperly entices plaintiffs attorneys to cut deals, a group of cities has told the Sixth Circuit.
September 26, 2019
The Ohio federal judge overseeing multidistrict opioid litigation refused Thursday to disqualify himself from the historic case, rejecting assertions from drug distributors that he appears biased against them.
September 25, 2019
Drug manufacturers and distributors on Wednesday previewed their attack plans for the first bellwether trial in multidistrict opioid litigation, pinning blame for an addiction epidemic on corrupt doctors, criminal cartels and even the local government plaintiffs themselves.
September 24, 2019
The Ohio federal judge overseeing multidistrict opioid litigation on Tuesday rejected Johnson & Johnson's bid for a bench trial instead of a jury trial on liability for an epidemic of painkiller addiction, saying "12 heads are better than one."
September 20, 2019
Johnson & Johnson's decision this year to risk a $17 billion penalty in the nation's first opioid-crisis trial added one of the most dramatic chapters yet to the company's increasingly remarkable willingness to spurn settlements and litigate financially perilous cases all the way.
September 19, 2019
Drug companies involved in multidistrict opioid litigation voiced divergent views in Ohio federal court Thursday on the jury's role in a looming bellwether trial, a question with significant implications for a potential multibillion-dollar remedy.
September 18, 2019
Drug distributors and pharmacies continued to press their surprise effort to disqualify the judge overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation, saying his recent approval of a novel negotiation class merits their last-minute play.