Connecticut’s former attorney general is urging 19 municipalities in the state to drop their lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors.
George Jepsen wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal this week that cities would be better off letting the state settle with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and distribute the money.
Judith Scolnick, an attorney with Scott and Scott, the law firm representing several Connecticut towns including New Haven, said the state should work with cities to help them recoup costs of emergency response and future damages.
“If all the defendants gave all their money and insurance, there would not be enough money to fix the harm that was caused. But that does not mean that we are in competition with one another. The budgets that the cities are suing for are entirely different than those that the state is suing for. It’s the cities that have to respond to 911 calls and work their EMT officers to exhaustion and these costs all come out of city budgets, they’re not out of state budgets, so the state cannot possibly ask for those recoveries.”
New Haven is one of 19 municipalities in Connecticut that filed suit against opioid drug makers and distributors. A state judge dismissed those lawsuits earlier this year. Lawyers for New Haven have filed an appeal asking Connecticut courts to allow their lawsuit to move forward.
Jepsen had been working with 36 state attorneys general and a federal judge in Ohio to help investigate claims against drug makers and distributors. Those companies face more than 1,600 lawsuits from cities, towns and states nationwide.
