Widespread addiction to prescription opioids cost municipalities thousands of dollars. These dollars are spent trying to save people from overdoses and training police officers to administer life-saving antidotes when time constraints prohibit waiting for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs).

According to a recent article by ABC7 Chicago, the mayor of Oak Lawn, Ill. was quoted as finding it necessary to institute mental health support services to assist with the prescription opioids addiction crisis.

Educating and training those most likely to be on the front lines of the crisis such as teachers, school administrators, physicians, firefighters, and other responders is very expensive.

Oak Lawn is one of eleven Illinois villages and cities that has been so affected by the prescription opioids addiction crisis that they have collectively filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court to obtain damages from pharmaceutical companies and three local doctors believed to caused or exacerbated the problem through aggressive marketing strategies and over prescribing.

According to ABC7 Chicago, the following Illinois villages and cities filed this prescription opioids addiction lawsuit: Melrose Park, Bellwood, Berkeley, Berwyn, Chicago Heights, Hillside, Northlake, Oak Lawn, Pekin, River Forest, and Tinley Park. Close to thirty defendants have been named in the legal action including Endo Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Paul Madison, Dr. William John McMahon, and Dr. Joseph Giacchino.

The three doctors named in the prescription opioids addiction lawsuit have been subject to medical license suspension, revocation, or relegated to permanent inactive status by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

The two known pharmaceutical companies have fiercely defended their respective organizations and deny an active part in promoting the prescription opioids addiction crisis.

Legal Strategy

While there is an Ohio-based federal judge that has had several lawsuits of this nature funneled before him or her in a consolidating effort by the U.S. District Courts, the plaintiff cities and states in this case are determined to resist any efforts to push this litigation to the federal level. The Illinois municipalities want to address the local ramifications of the prescription opioids addiction crisis through use of the local court system.

Oak Lawn’s mayor Sandra Bury indicates that while multiple corporations have raked in huge profits from the unscrupulous advertising surrounding prescription pain-killers, villages and towns both in Illinois and across the nation have suffered immense costs in an effort to address the addiction problem.

According to ABC7 Chicago, Oak Lawn had 17 overdose calls in 2017 with 9 of those calls resulting in the saving of a life. During most overdose calls, a dose of Naloxone is given.

Naloxone runs $4,300 per dose and doesn’t include the cost of training city personnel to administer the antidote. While Oak Lawn was the recent recipient of a $123,000 grant to help with the crisis, anticipatory costs are straining the town’s budget forecasters.

Other Local Lawsuits

In addition to Illinois villages and cities filing this recent lawsuit, five other counties have also taken legal action.

The counties of DuPage, Lake, Will, McHenry, and Kane filed lawsuits in December 2017 against several doctors and pharmaceutical companies seeking compensatory and punitive damages. The Illinois Department of Health reports that opioids have been a factor in at least 1,200 deaths in the year 2016.

In general, opioid overdose death lawsuits are filed individually by each plaintiff and are not class actions.

If your loved died from an opioid overdose in the last three years from an addiction that began as a legal opioid prescription from his or her doctor, you may have a legal claim. Get help now by filling out the form on this page for a FREE case evaluation.

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