【meet and greet messi】Opioid Judge Stays Discovery Due to Gov't Shutdown
时间:2024-09-29 12:22:04 出处:Fashion阅读(143)
Credit: Phil Lowe/Shutterstock.com
A federal judge in Ohio granted the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to halt discovery in a set of leading lawsuits over the opioid epidemic due to the partial government shutdown,meet and greet messi but allowed discovery to go forward in two more bellwether cases.
In a
Dec. 26 motion
, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynne Buck, in Cleveland, sought to stay discovery for 14 days in cases alleging that defendant companies were responsible for an epidemic of addictions and overdoses across the country tied to the prescription painkillers. U.S. District Dan Polster granted the motion the following day, but on Monday added two more bellwether cases to a small subset of lawsuits in which he has allowed limited discovery.
“This second set of bellwether cases recognizes the need to press forward with the litigation in another jurisdiction hard-hit by the marketing and distribution of opioids,” wrote lead plaintiffs attorneys Paul Farrell of Greene Ketchum, Farrell, Bailey & Tweel; Paul Hanly of Simmons Hanly Conroy; and Joe Rice of Motley Rice, in a prepared statement.
The DOJ’s discovery motion is one of
several requests
in litigation throughout the country to suspend work on civil cases, with some judges granting the motions. Some districts, like the
Southern District of New York
and the Northern District of Ohio, have issued their own written orders.
In the opioid case, the DOJ cited a
Dec. 26 order
by Northern District of Ohio Chief Judge Patricia Gaughan holding all civil matters involving the United States in abeyance for 14 days due to the “lapse of congressional appropriations funding the federal government.”
“If at the end of that period, Congress has not restored appropriations to the Department," the motion says, "the United States may seek a further extension of discovery deadlines pertaining to the third party federal agencies.”
More than 1,500 cities, counties and other government groups have sued the opioid companies, but the DOJ's involvement has primarily been
in discovery
matters, such as providing information to plaintiffs’ lawyers about a drug distribution database held by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Polster has assigned a handful of bellwether cases for discovery, with a trial set for Sept. 3. On Dec. 19, he
adopted most of a federal magistrate judge’s report and recommendation
not to dismiss racketeering, public nuisance and other claims brought by the cities of Akron and Cleveland, and two Ohio counties, against opioid manufacturers and distributors, and pharmacies.
On Dec. 31, concluding that the initial three cases “include a large, but incomplete, fraction of the issues and parties relevant to the MDL,” he ordered a “second track” of bellwether cases to go forward involving the city of Huntington and Cabell County, both in West Virginia.
Last month, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee
released a report
that found the DEA and opioid distributors failed to stop the flow of millions of pills into rural West Virginia.
View comments
上一篇: Euro zone manufacturing collapses in April as virus spreads -PMI
下一篇: How Much is Wisdom Education International Holdings Company Limited's (HKG:6068) CEO Getting Paid?
猜你喜欢
- Oprah tour driving Weight Watchers memberships
- BRIEF-Dongguan Development To Invest 10.98 Bln Yuan In Subway Construction Project Company
- Market Morning: Stocks Lurch, Drug Price Hikes, Trump Caves, China Threatens
- BRIEF-Suzhou Keda Technology's Two Shareholders To Unload Up To 2 Pct Stake Within Six Months
- 5 Stocks With Decent Growth Potential to Watch Ahead
- Should You Be Worried About ESI Group SA's (EPA:ESI) 4.1% Return On Equity?
- Andrews Sykes Group plc (LON:ASY) Is Employing Capital Very Effectively
- The State of Medical Marijuana Is at a Crossroads in Florida
- EMERGING MARKETS-Latam FX attempt comeback, Colombian peso eyes best day in 7 months