While the world has been focused on the global COVID pandemic, the United States has continued to struggle with its own unique epidemic. The opioid crisis has gripped the country for over two decades and has only continued to worsen over the past two years. Since the start of the COVID pandemic, nearly 179,000 Americans have died from opioids. The CDC estimates that roughly 250 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. Beyond the devastating physical toll, the opioid epidemic has had severe economic consequences on the nation as well. A bipartisan congressional report issued earlier this year found that the opioid epidemic costs the United States roughly $1 trillion a year.

It thus comes as no surprise that the opioid crisis has produced a flood of litigation primarily aimed at opioid manufacturers and distributors. Many of these lawsuits involve public entities suing opioid companies for the increase in costs for public services associated with the opioid epidemic such as law enforcement, emergency services, and treatment facilities. These litigations have already led to monumental settlements, mostly recently between various drug distributors and state attorney generals for nearly $26 billion. Faced with large verdicts and settlements, as well as the substantial financial burden of defending these massive lawsuits, the targets of the opioid lawsuits are turning to their insurers to defend and indemnify them. Cases interpreting the scope of the insurer’s obligations have been few and the results have been inconsistent which is likely to result in an explosion of insurance coverage litigation while the dust settles.

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