Welcome to Critical Mass, Law.com’s weekly briefing for class action and mass tort attorneys. It’s been quite the week for lawsuits over opioids. First, talks over a potential $48 billion global settlement broke down on Friday. Then, there was the first jury trial over the opioid crisis that, well, didn’t happen. Instead, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, the three major distributors of opiate pharmaceuticals, and one manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceuticals, agreed to a $260 million settlement with two Ohio counties just hours before opening statements on Monday. Later that day, Pennsylvania’s AG announced the $48 billion deal went through—this time, without all the cities and counties on board. I was in Cleveland on Monday and talked to some of the lawyers who were there. For this week’s Critical Mass, I’ve got more on what’s happening with the opioid cases. As always, please feel free to email me at [email protected], or follow me on Twitter: @abronstadlaw.

Mark Lanier of The Lanier Law Firm

What Jurors Were Going to Hear

I spoke with Mark Lanier (The Lanier Law Firm), who really wanted to talk about the opening statement he had planned for Monday’s opioid trial. He told me he was on “four hours a night” of sleep for the past month. After a quick celebration of his 59th birthday on Sunday in Houston, he flew out to Cleveland, where he went over the 150 slides with his trial team at the Ritz Carlton.

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