Morgan & Morgan to Help Kentucky AG in Fight to End Opioid Crisis
https://www.forthepeople.com/blog/kentucky-opioid-crisis
We are proud to announce that the Kentucky Attorney General’s office has selected our law firm to lead litigation against the major players responsible for creating the opioid crisis, a drug epidemic that has caused immeasurable heartbreak and suffering for families in the state.
“The people of Kentucky need justice to be served for this horrible epidemic, and that’s what Morgan & Morgan is all about,” John Morgan said.
Morgan & Morgan’s Government Action Group, led by attorneys James Young and Greg Stumbo, will join the legal team established by Attorney General Andy Beshear to investigate potential litigation against drug manufacturers, distributors, and retailers that have contributed to — and profited from — the opioid crisis through the illegal marketing and distribution of opioids in Kentucky.
For Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan, who grew up in Lexington, getting justice for those who have suffered through the opioid epidemic in his home state is a personal matter.
“The people of Kentucky need justice to be served for this horrible epidemic, and that’s what Morgan & Morgan is all about,” John Morgan said. “We’ve tried more cases than any other firm, and our attorneys aren’t afraid to stand up to these pharmaceutical companies in front of a jury. They picked a fight with David, but Goliath just showed up.”
A Brief History of the Opioid Crisis
The problem of prescription and non-prescription opioid abuse began in the early 2000s and has spiraled into a full-blown crisis since then. Sales of prescription opioids in the U.S. nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2014, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Likewise, the number of overdoses involving deaths since 1999 have also quadrupled. Many believe the aggressive marketing and overprescription of opioids to vulnerable patients is to blame for the crisis.
Those who first become addicted to pills prescribed to them by their doctor to manage pain after an accident or surgery often turn to heroin as their addiction grows. Everyday, over 90 Americans die from overdosing on opioids, according to the CDC, and these deaths are disproportionately affecting rural America and the Rust Belt.
“Nearly 80 percent of heroin users first become addicted through prescription pills,” Beshear said in a press release. “If we can reduce opioid prescriptions and use other forms of pain management treatment, we will slow or even reverse the rate of addiction.”
Our Experience in the Fight Against Opioids
One of the reasons our firm was chosen by the Attorney General to aid in the fight against opioid abuse in Kentucky is our previous experience in handling litigation against the opioid manufacturers and distributors who push these highly addictive drugs.
Last year, Morgan & Morgan filed a lawsuit against major drug distributors McKessen Corp., Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen Drug Co. on behalf of McDowell County, West Virginia — a county with some of the highest overdose death rates in the country. This was the first lawsuit filed in the state against the three drug giants, which supplied more than half of West Virginia’s opioids at the time.
We are honored to use our opioid litigation experience to help the Attorney General’s office hold any responsible parties accountable for their role in contributing to the opioid epidemic. We look forward to bringing justice to the families of Kentucky affected by the crisis.
Filed under: General Problems
I said it a POST while back,,,morgan and morgan hold A LOT OF GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS!!!!!!
This is the law firm all the chronic pain patients were calling as they “thought” the law firm would help us!
This story is the most obvious raison d’être for tort reform. It’s the literary poster child for tort reform. This would be more than mildly humorous…in fact it’d be downright funny, save for the suffering, pain ad death, the humor is rightly suppressed and yet the flagrant truth is that it’s really all about the money. I can guarantee that all the rhetorical phallic waving and tactical, nuanced sophistry is the preamble for a group of suit and tie wearing master manipulators who are doing that which they do best and that’s to apply the civil liability legal equivalent of the almost 90 year old, privately held, nationally recognized ServiceMaster Cleaning Company. These attorneys are going to attempt to extract every tangible asset that they can convince a judge and a jury to compel the defendants in this action(s) to remit to the alleged victims. the truth is that by the time the assets are doled out to the lie-up of the various “victims’ aka plaintiffs in this process, the M&M group will unfortunately not been able to purge the majority of this allegedly tainted, allegedly filthy lucre from their “extraction process”. Sorry kids…that’s the way this works. M&M does not care one whit about anything more than how much they can accrue for themselves. Even if limited by some statutory limit of 30% of the damages, this is still going to amount to tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars that perhaps a dozen JD’s at M&M will divvy up amongst themselves while the government entities will retain most of it to ensure that the individual plaintiffs will receive their justice call it what it is…it’s thinly veiled misdirected retribution). In doing so, the State’s overhead will consume a much larger percentage than M&M did in the prevarication directed notion of the State ensuring fairness, and funding more into programs to ensure Public Safety, Save the Children and I’m sure in some way a creative rationale directed at saving the planet…the three big lies that the State utilizes to get the dull witted and the apathetic to go along with the State stealing assets that it has no right to.The little folks will collect enough to take a slightly larger monetary opportunity of chance at a real windfall of purchasing lottery tickets while others will perhaps try to save or incest the paltry hundred or perhaps a few thousand dollars towards some worthy pursuit. A few will practice the 21st century philanthropic equivalent of the widow and the two mites Biblical parable.
I can guarantee that the altruistic rhetoric would go the way of the Dodo if firms like M&M were simply allowed to collect one million dollars or 5%, whichever was the lesser amount of such thinly veiled attempts by the State to further shake down the Productive Sector if the parasitic Sector like M&M were limited by such tort reform. I’m not just suggesting Tort reform in this kinds of unethical, immoral attempts at dressing this kind of action up as if it were a product liability suit. No, I’m referring to all forms of product liability and medical malpractice judgement limits. I’m not suggesting that iatrogenic harm is false or overstated. It happens and far too often. My issue is that the actual victims and their families, aka the survivors in some cases) see little if any of these tangible assets in these judgements. M&M…your judgment amount melts into their bank account and will never make it into your hands Mr. and Mrs. genuine plaintiff. That’s what Truth in Advertising enforcement would compel stated if there were such statutes in place. Those three big Statist Lies…aka the catchall prevarications that the legislatures, the executives, aka the governors and Presidents that sign these deception driven “bills” into laws and the judges of the various “supreme” courts…well they just rubber stamp the same…It’s about public safety…it’s for the children and it’s to save the planet…I recall in High school in the late ’70s, the adolescent 3 big lies were,”The check is in the mail”, “it’s only a cold sore” and CRASSNESS ALERT-BE FOREWARNED…”I promise babe, I won’t put my shot in your mouth.” Such were days of innocence far gone to those in my age group where those were the worst of the bad. Now…well…It’ll only stop when we collectively take a stand and say “NO!” when the State tries to justify more money sucking and power usurping laws to be foisted on us. Until, then….the status quo reigns and the State will hold the private sector responsible via its sycophantic minions like M&M. The truth is that this is mostly the result of the State’s failed almost 50 year old War on Drugs. Just Say No to NOT drugs, but the War on Drugs…because again it’s a lie. It’s a war on “We the People”. That was the real reason behind it in the first place and until We the People hold the State’s collective feet to the fire, force a confession and sweeping changes, as RPh Steve says, “If you do nothing, you get nothing.” This recent paradigm shift is because the DEA is about to have to admit defeat in its war against Cannabis and this is a desperate attempt to justify its existence and budget as are all the other interconnected malignant moieties. So either learn to say No to anymore of the State’s demands for money and power or learn how to politely ask to have your chains loosened just a little to spare your already macerated flesh as you perform your assigned slave-servitude task. The time is already here and if we don’t take a stand then we soon will be forced to kneel.