AG Mike Hunter Explains Decision To Drop Most Claims In Opioid Lawsuit

As the state prepares for its trial against opioid manufacturers in May, the attorney general's office just dropped almost all of the claims in its lawsuit. There is now only one claim, which labels the drug makers a “public nuisance.”

The decision to drop all but one claim in this case may be confusing, but Attorney General Mike Hunter says this is the fastest, most efficient way to get the appropriate result for the state.

See Related Story: State Lawmakers Respond After AG Drops Claims In Opioid Case

“We know what we’re doing,” he says. “We’re confident in our case.”

Hunter says the state’s initial filing in the lawsuit covered everything he felt the opioid manufacturers did wrong to cause Oklahoma's epidemic, but the focus has always been the public nuisance claim. Hunter says forgetting about the rest of the issues will hopefully prevent a logjam of litigation.

“It also avoids a lot of the pretrial nonsense that was bogging down our efforts to get ready for trial that the defendants were engaging in,” explains Hunter.

One drug maker, Purdue Pharma, has already agreed to pay $270 million to an OSU research program to remedy its role in the epidemic, but Hunter says he will be looking for something different moving forward.

He says, “The Purdue settlement really is unique in that we were trying to avoid putting them in bankruptcy.”

“That would have taken them out of the case,” Hunter says, elaborating on the Purdue agreement. “Oklahoma would have gotten zero from this defendant.”

From the rest of the companies, Hunter's ideal figure is in the billions of dollars. He says that money would be distributed to programs statewide.

“My hope is that establishing a separate fund for these monies and deploying them in a very careful, focused way towards the needs of the state is the best use for that money,” Hunter says.

There is still time for the manufacturers to settle, and with just one claim moving forward now in Cleveland County, the verdict will come from a judge instead of a jury. For now, the bench trial is still set to start May 28.

See Also: Washington Post Explains National Impact Of Oklahoma Opioid Settlement