Philly DA Larry Krasner sues over opioid settlement

HE GOES AGAINST THE GRAIN –

July 22, 2021 – Krasner contends that his suit could generate more money for the city.

The new complaint from Krasner focuses on the settlement agreement with the three major U.S. drug distributors — including Conshohocken-based AmerisourceBergen — in which they’d pay up to $21 billion combined to resolve thousands of lawsuits filed nationwide. The companies, accused of failing to flag suspicious orders of prescription opioids, have denied wrongdoing. Shapiro was part of a small, bipartisan group of state attorneys general involved in negotiating the deal that was announced Wednesday. States now have a month to join, and over the next several months, a large number of counties and cities would also need to give up their opioid lawsuits to maximize the payouts under the settlement.

Krasner said he wants a court “to make it clear that, no, the attorney general cannot take away our lawsuit, has no right to take away our lawsuit.”

“There seems to be an effort on the part of this settlement to somehow put attorneys general in a position where they can yank the rug out of every district attorney in the state who filed one of these cases,” Krasner added during a Thursday press conference.

A spokesperson for Shapiro’s office said: “The proposed settlement doesn’t stop any local jurisdiction from pursuing its own litigation if they choose not to participate” in the agreement.