The City of Rome, Floyd County, Chattooga County, Whitfield County and the City of Cartersville has filed a class action lawsuit, on behalf of all cities and counties in Georgia, to eliminate the hazard to public health and safety caused by the opioid epidemic and to recoup monies that have been spent, or will be spent, because of false, deceptive, and unfair marketing and/or unlawful diversion of prescription opioids by manufacturers and distributors.
There are over 250 cases now filed nationwide against the manufacturers and distributors. All, or nearly all of the opioid lawsuits, have been consolidated and are now pending before Judge Dan Polster, a U.S. District Court judge in Cleveland, Ohio, in a Multidistrict Litigation proceeding. The class action filed by the City of Rome, et al. is pending before Judge Harold Murphy, the U.S. District Court judge for the Rome Division. It is anticipated that the case will be consolidated and transferred to Judge Poster to be included in the Ohio MDL for pre-trial proceedings.
The Rome opioid class action brings together two former adversaries in the Tri-State Crematory MDL, which was also before Judge Murphy. In that multidistrict litigation proceeding, Andy Davis of Brinson, Askew, Berry, and Robert Smalley of McCamy, Phillips, each served as liaison and lead counsel for the plaintiffs and defendants, respectively—Davis representing the defendant funeral homes and Smalley representing the plaintiff class of families who brought the suit.
Davis and Smalley are joined by three other highly experienced class-action and trial lawyers, John Crongeyer, Bill Bird and Bob Finnell. Crongeyer, along with Davis, served as class counsel in a class action brought on behalf of all cities and counties in Georgia against the online travel companies for unpaid hotel motel taxes. Congreyer and Finnell brought similar class actions against online travel companies on behalf of cities, counties and states in other states outside of Georgia.
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