Bondi can’t find lawyer for opioid suit

TALLAHASSEE — Attorney General Pam Bondi said last week that she will sue the big drugmakers and distributors who contributed to Florida’s opioid crisis.

But there’s one thing she still hasn’t done: find outside lawyers to take up the case.

For at least two months, her office says it’s been looking, but hasn’t decided on anyone.

That’s a critical first step toward bringing in potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to Florida to help handle the epidemic, and one candidate for attorney general this year says the office should already have hired someone and filed a lawsuit.

“I think that’s a big joke because a lot of these localities have already done the interviews and have hired appropriate counsel,” said Ryan Torrens, a Tampa lawyer and Democrat. “It should be well into litigation by now.”

Bondi said last week that she won’t be joining a massive multistate lawsuit being coordinated by a federal judge in Ohio.

“Florida, as the third-largest state in the country, we will be filing our own lawsuit, just as we did in the BP oil spill,” Bondi said.

But she gave no timetable for the lawsuit.

The heroin crisis has grown deadlier each year in Florida since 2011, yet dozens of states have already sued the opioid manufacturers and drug distributors that experts believe played a critical role in creating the problem.

Palm Beach County has already found outside counsel and filed a lawsuit against more than two dozen people and companies, including CVS, Walmart and Johnson & Johnson, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Osceola County, Delray Beach, Miami-Dade County, Pinellas County, Alachua County, Pasco County, Tifton and others have already either sued the drugmakers or voted to hire lawyers to do so.

If Bondi wants to find a lawyer, she wouldn’t have to go far. Law firms in Tampa Bay have have joined suit, and one of the biggest law firms handling opioid lawsuits across the country is the Pensacola-based firm Levin Papantonio.

That firm is representing more than 350 government agencies suing opioid manufacturers and distributors, according to the firm’s website.