Oklahoma County sues opioid makers
Oklahoma County has filed i ts official petition against opioid manufacturers for al l egedly creating a public nuisance in the county.
The petition, filed Friday, also accuses the companies of fraud, negligence, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment and punitive damages. The county will seek a jury trial and is looking to receive damages related to medical care, counseling, child welfare, law enforcement and drug court, among many other things.
Lawyers from the Fulmer Sill Law Firm, which represents more than 50 other cities and counties in the state with similar lawsuits, previously said they aren't pinning down a specific amount yet, but expect it to be “tens of millions of dollars.”
“Oklahoma County has been overwhelmed by the devastation from opioid addiction, and its costs to provide a wide range of social services, from child welfare to law enforcement, have substantially increased,” the petition reads. “The result has been that virtually every family in Oklahoma County has personally experienced or knows someone who has been adversely i mpacted by t he opioid epidemic.”
The list of defendants includes well-known companies like Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson &Johnson and J ans sen Pharmaceuticals.
The legal argument closely aligns with that of the state's case against Johnson &Johnson, which spent roughly seven weeks at trial this summer. Both allege the defendants engaged in deceptive marketing by downplaying the risks of opioids while overstating their benefits, creating a public nuisance.
“The staggering nature of the problem created by the opioid crisis is imposing costs on all of us,” Oklahoma County Commissioner Kevin Calvey said. “And it's important that we look out for the taxpayers and try to recover some of those costs from t hose who knew or should have known the impact of their actions.”
Calvey said he hopes to dedicate any funds from the lawsuit toward mental health and substance abuse treatment.
The goal is for the lawsuit to stay in Oklahoma County court, but it's likely the opioid companies will try to move the case to federal court. If the county wins its case, the law firm will receive 15% of the funds. If not, the firm will get no money.
“It's a big case,” said Alex Yaffe, a lawyer with Fulmer Sill. “The citizens of Oklahoma County have suffered a lot. The taxpayers of Oklahoma County have suffered a lot. It's taken a lot of courage for the commissioners of Oklahoma County to take this step and move forward to protect their constituents, and we're ready to strap on the gloves and get after these guys.”
Since the case is using a similar legal argument to the state, the case could be affected by the outcome of the state's trial, which should be decided later this month.