Opioid$ $ettlement

 

Something to remember about the opioid settlement announced today:

"...plaintiffs also faced increasing pressure to settle, as legal costs mounted.

And most urgently, so did the numbers of people addicted to prescription opioid and street drugs during the pandemic. Last week, the federal government announced that 2020 saw a record number of overdose deaths from opioids, both illegal and prescribed.

Notably, the settlement funds are not intended to compensate families of the victims of the two-decade-long opioid crisis, during which at least 500,000 people died from overdoses of prescription and street opioids, according to federal data."

                                                                                                                   NY Times story

But the law firms involved will rake in the cash.

According to the settlement, about $1.6 billion in fees and costs would be paid to private lawyers representing thousands of counties and municipalities, $50 million in costs, and about $350 million to private lawyers who worked for states. (also from the N.Y. Times story)