Lawyers suing over the opioid crisis may have overcome a major hurdle in their negotiations for a global settlement, announcing a proposed $26 billion settlement with three major pharmaceutical distributors and Johnson & Johnson.
The announcement, on Thursday, is $4 billion more than a settlement floated earlier this year that reached an impasse over legal fees. Members of the plaintiffs’ executive committee overseeing thousands of lawsuits brought primarily on behalf of cities and counties against opioid companies said they gave “full support” of the revised settlement, which includes a separate fund, paid for by the defendants, for attorney fees.
