A recent Law.com story by Aleeza Furman, “Judge Greenlights $28.4M in Contingency Fees to Firms Representing Pa. Opioid Plaintiffs”, reports that lawyers for Pennsylvania plaintiffs who signed onto a major 2022 opioid settlement are set to receive a cumulative $28.4 million in contingency fees from the deal.  Judge Barry Dozor of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, who oversees Pennsylvania’s coordinated opioid litigation, approved the fee awards Dec. 14.  The fees are slated to be paid out of the Pennsylvania Opioid Fee Fund—a chunk of money allotted for lawyers from Pennsylvania’s $1.07 billion share of the $26 billion global settlement between state and local governments and Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen.

Dozor’s Dec. 14 order greenlit recommendations from retired Judge Joel Schneider, a special master charged with overseeing the allocation of the Pennsylvania Opioid Fee Fund.  Schneider divided $28.4 million in contingency fees among 11 law firms to be paid in annual increments over the course of five years.  The awards range from around $4,000 (to Philadelphia-area Levy Baldante Finney & Rubenstein) to $10.7 million (to Pensacola, Florida-based Levin Papantonio Rafferty).

The 11 firms Schneider listed are designated payees, which will go on to distribute portions of their respective awards among the host of other plaintiffs firms with clients involved in the settlement, according to one attorney involved in the litigation.

Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky partner Patrick Howard, who represents plaintiff Delaware County,  said Dozor’s order marks the first of two determinations regarding fees from the opioid fee fund.

Howard said the fund includes one portion for contingency fees—what Dozor just approved—and one portion for common benefit fees to be determined in 2024.  Howard said the second portion of fees would be awarded to a smaller group of lawyers who were actively involved in the litigation.  Dozor also already approved a $16.65 million payout from the fund in December 2022 reimbursing costs and expenses firms incurred in the litigation.

According to Howard, the fee determinations are part of a broader winding down of Pennsylvania’s long-running opioid litigation.  He said attorneys are currently hammering out the allocation details of a second wave of multibillion-dollar settlements with pharmacies and other drug companies, and most parties’ claims are resolved.  “As far as litigating against defendants,” Howard said, “I would say 95% of the commonwealth’s litigation is over.”