Summit County will receive around $1.3 million from a nationwide opioid settlement against four defendants from the pharmaceutical industry, but could receive more in the future through ongoing litigation with additional defendants.
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes announced the $26 billion agreement on Monday with the state receiving $266 million from the settlement with Cardinal Health, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson.
Half of the money, which will be paid over 18 years, goes to the state while the remaining amount goes to counties that participated in the deal. Each state’s share is determined by population, which also determines how much each county receives. Summit County received a smaller amount than larger counties.
The county will receive around $57,000 per year, which can be used for substance abuse prevention, education and treatment.
“It’s just a start but it’s exciting to begin programming,” said Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson. “This isn’t taxpayer money but money from the people who started this crisis.”
The defendants are expected to release the funds to a national administrator in early April, which will allow the counties to receive their proceeds soon, according to the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
Olson said county officials haven’t met to discuss using the funds but the money will go toward recovery and abatement to help prevent addiction from continuing. She also hopes to meet with state officials to advocate for more of the settlement money going to local governments that have absorbed most of the costs associated with the opioid epidemic.
“The counties are in the best position to put this money to the best use to directly help the community,” she said.
Summit County became the first county in Utah to file a lawsuit against several of the country’s largest opioid manufacturers and distributors in 2018. Olson began looking at the impact of the opioid epidemic on the county after taking office in 2017 and decided to pursue mass tort litigation — where legal action is taken by multiple plaintiffs against one or more at-fault parties — for the companies’ role in fueling the crisis.
The lawsuit presented no risk to the county because it wasn’t funded with taxpayer money. But it had the potential to recover money that county officials could use to start responding to the issue. When the litigation began, Olson expected it could last up to 10 years.
“We will never be made whole. There is no amount of money that could represent the loss of life and the harm to families,” she said.
But without enough interest throughout the state, the deal could have fallen through.
Local governments had until Jan. 26 to sign on to the deal and drop their lawsuits against the four pharmaceutical defendants. The defendants then had until Feb. 25 to determine whether there was enough participation from counties to move forward with the settlement.
In total, 27 of Utah’s 29 counties joined the deal. There was some divide among local communities whether to participate in the nationwide settlement or have a county jury hear the case and reach a verdict, but the state ultimately said it was in their best interest to sign on, according to Olson.
She said the litigation has moved slowly over the past four years and they’ve barely started the discovery, or pre-trial, process. Dozens of entities connected to the opioid industry have been sued, in addition to the four defendants that agreed to the settlement.
The rest of the lawsuit, which includes around 50 defendants from approximately 20 different corporate groups, remains ongoing, according to Walter Mason, outside counsel for the county.
There are several phases to the ongoing litigation. Mason said cases in other parts of the state must proceed before progress can be made in Summit County’s case. It’s hard to determine how much more money the county could receive if a favorable verdict is reached in its case, according to Mason.
“It’s a step in the right direction but it doesn’t compensate the community for its losses — those are irreparable,” he said.