Opioid deadline passes for local governments

They had until Friday to opt out of litigation; doesn’t affect states.

Local governments DAYTON — across the U.S. had until Friday to decide whether or not to opt out of litigation that could lead to a multi-billion-dollar opioid settlement.

More than 2,400lawsuits have been filed blaming the opioid industry for creating a preventable national public health crisis. Earlier this year U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster, based in Cleveland, gave approval for the local governments to come together to negotiate potential settlements in what the attorneys are calling a negotiation class.

As many as 33,000 cities, counties and other local governments across the U.S. could participate in settlements — even if they have not filed opioid lawsuits — as long as they didn’t opt out of the group by Nov. 22. Local governments have to decide whether or not to opt out before learning what kind of settlement they could get.

This group does not include state governments, such as Ohio, that have their own suits pending against distributors and manufacturers.

Attorneys for local governments unveiled details about the negotiating class on June 14. In an announcement about the settlement framework, attorney Joseph Rice, with Motley Rice, stated “this opioid litigation is one of the most urgent, complex and challenging litigations to ever go through U.S. courts.”

Some cities and counties, how

ever, have chosen to opt out of the negotiation class.

Dayton and Montgomery County have each filed their own lawsuits and messages were left Friday seeking more information on whether either was opting out of the negotiating class.

Money would be divided up based on a detailed formula looking at things like population and how much a community was impacted. A supermajority would need to approve any settlement. The settlement formula is posted on www.opioidsne- gotiationclass.info.

Oakwood Law Director Rob Jacques said “the only reason to opt out, in my view, is if a city wishes to pursue its own independent lawsuit and does not want to be bound by the results of this class action litigation.”

“The city will not be filing its own lawsuit, and therefore we are not opting out of the class. We will remain in the case and anticipate that we would accept whatever consensus settlement results from it,” Jacques said.

Many local cities, including Kettering and Centerville, that were reached for comment Friday said that they will not be opting out of the lawsuit.

Appeals to stop the negotiation class are currently pending before the Sixth Circuit.