A recent Law 360 story by Emily Field, “$26B Opioid Deal Offer to Include $2B in Atty Fees,” reports that the $26 billion settlement proposal from Johnson & Johnson and McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. will include a separate $2 billion fund to pay attorney fees and costs for the local governments that have sued over the opioid epidemic in multidistrict litigation, a source confirmed.
A source with knowledge of the settlement negotiations confirmed that the fund will be $2 billion and will be used to pay the plaintiffs' attorney fees, including the private counsel hired by the state attorneys general who have claimed that the companies fueled the opioid crisis. The fund will be administered by an arbitration panel, the details of which have yet to be worked out with U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who is overseeing the multidistrict litigation over the crisis in Ohio federal court, the source said.
The source also noted that the $2 billion was less than the $3 billion that had initially been reported. In February, drug companies told Judge Polster that a proposal for 7% fee against a global settlement could be more than $3.3 billion, potentially jeopardizing negotiations. The plaintiffs' executive committee in the MDL said in a statement that they supported the deal, which includes $4 billion more than an initial offer of $22 billion in cash in the fall of 2019.
"While no dollar figure can restore the lives and families already devastated by the crisis, these settlement dollars are desperately needed in areas that have been hardest hit by this man-made epidemic, particularly as they now grapple with COVID-19," said Paul T. Farrell Jr. of Farrell Law, Paul J. Hanly Jr. of Simmons Hanly Conroy and Joe Rice of Motley Rice LLC in a joint statement. "Addiction prevention, education and treatment is critical to the recovery of our families and communities. We need to get these resources out to them as fast as we can — this settlement does that." The committee also noted that the attorney fees fund is intended to replace the collection of contingency fees so that money can reach communities faster.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission McKesson said it would pay up to $8 billion over 18 years, and Cardinal and AmerisourceBergen would pay the rest over that time. In October, J&J disclosed that it's offering up to $5 billion to end the litigation, a 25% increase from an earlier settlement proposal.
The MDL contains 3,000 cases filed mostly by cities and counties that want money for health care and law enforcement costs related to opioid abuse. Some MDL attorneys also represent cities and counties with similar cases in state courts. The attorneys general of virtually every state have also filed cases in state courts.