Opioid Litigation: What You Need to Know

Opioid Litigation: What You Need to Know

August 17, 2021

More than 130 Americans lose their lives to opioid overdoses and many more struggle with opioid addiction each day. Over the past 20 years, the deregulation of laws administering the prescription of opioids to treat chronic non-cancer pain by the state medical boards has caused considerable increases in opioid use.

Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically, they are typically used for pain relief, including anesthesia; however, they can also produce an addictive euphoric high in users when abused.

The opioid epidemic has caused significant pain, suffering, and limitless damage to millions of Americans. Unfortunately, individuals who were just trying to find a way to manage their pain instead ended up with an awful addiction to the pills a medical professional prescribed them. And more times than not, that severe addiction causes a horrible death due to an overdose. In 2020 alone, more than 93,000 people passed away due to a drug overdose, a record number that shows an increase of nearly 30% from 2019. Also, data reveals that opioid painkillers are now accountable for more deaths than suicide and motor vehicle crashes or deaths from cocaine and heroin combined.

As this epidemic continues to grow, our society and our legal system have started to recognize that, in most cases, an addict's dependence on opioids cannot be attributed to a weak will or moral defeat. Evidence now proposes that the healthcare industry continues to purposefully fail to protect the patients that it claims to serve. This evidence appears to have begun directly with the opioid producers themselves, extending to the medical professionals that prescribe these pills by the billions.

The Truth Behind the Opioid Epidemic

For many years, drugs like hydrocodone, morphine, fentanyl, and Oxycotin were promoted as a miracle option to the longtime problem of pain relief for anybody dealing with severe or persistent pain. However, with that relief came the extreme risk of addiction. Sadly, this side was never appropriately acknowledged by the manufacturers, nor were the millions of patients who were prescribed these drugs adequately notified.

This dreadful epidemic did not crawl out of the woodwork. It can all be traced back to distrustful, profit-seeking decisions continually made by drug manufacturers who chose not to notify the general public of the risks accompanying opioid usage.

In fact, in July of 2021, four major companies that dispersed opioid painkillers, even as addiction and overdose deaths increased, were confronted with a $26 billion national settlement. These companies consisted of Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson. Each company has denied any wrongdoing in its production and marketing of opioids; however, they have specified that this settlement will "deliver meaningful relief to neighborhoods across the country." Only a year prior to this particular settlement, Purdue Pharma, another pharmaceutical manufacturer, faced an $8.3 billion settlement after confessing that it marketed and sold its dangerous opioid items to doctor, understanding that these providers were distributing them to abusers.

However, opioid manufacturers are not the only ones at fault. Kickbacks, specifically pharmaceutical kickbacks, are a type of fraud in which a drug manufacturer bribes a physician to encourage them to prescribe medications for unapproved or inappropriate uses. These kickbacks can come in the form of incentives like lavish trips, monetary benefits, extravagant gifts, or phony research grants. Pharmaceutical kickbacks make the manufacturer and provider more lucrative while increasing the number of opioids individuals often abuse.

Opioid Litigation

As the numbers reveal a practically incomprehensible nationwide crisis, communities, states, and other local entities have finally had enough. Increasingly more lawsuits against manufacturers, and even medical professionals, have begun in hopes of fixing the wrong that has caused more unexpected deaths in the country than that of vehicle accidents.

Lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, for instance, state that defendants deliberately participated in misleading marketing of opioids by "downplaying the risk of addiction" and "denying the risks of high dosages." Complainant's causes of action range from the cost of effects of the epidemic to violations of state customer protection. Sadly, many big pharmaceutical companies have not been true to their word of protecting the customers they serve, resulting in too many lost lives.

Fighting Back

As the death tolls continue to increase, state authorities nationwide have started investigations to bring legal measures against these drug manufacturers. Many of these investigations have been successful in court, opening the door for claims to people who have suffered the horrific consequences opioids bring.

Hundreds of claims, if not thousands, have been filed, and the legal field has never been more responsive. As this awful epidemic becomes more apparent, our country becomes more understanding of the trauma and damage that has troubled masses of people across the nation. Friends, family, neighbors, and everyone in between have been affected, and it's time to fight back for the wrong that has been done.

Why Choose The Cochran Firm 

The attorneys at The Cochran Firm are among the nation’s most successful and tenacious attorneys. When navigating through the legal process, you deserve to have an experienced attorney by your side. The Cochran Firm attorneys know how to fight for you. 

Here at The Cochran Firm, our experienced attorneys are ready to help you or someone you love that has suffered from the opioid epidemic. Our attorneys work closely with each of our clients using pooled resources and their access to legal expertise to ensure the most effective legal representation available is provided. 

You need the help of an experienced attorney who has proven successful results in other similar cases to guide you through the process and help you to receive the monetary damages you are entitled to under the law. At The Cochran Firm, we have the offices, the experience, the results, and the resources to aid clients throughout the United States.

Please contact our attorneys at The Cochran Firm today for your free, no-obligation initial consultation today.

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