Municipalities May be Eligible to Participate in Multibillion Dollar Opioid Settlement

The Michigan Attorney General, Dana Nessell, announced last week that certain municipalities across the state may be eligible to receive direct cash payments from an historic, multi billion-dollar national opioid settlement with Johnson & Johnson and the three largest pharmaceutical distributors in the country: Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. The settlement was announced in July, and the state formally signed on in August, but the participation cutoff date for local governments to receive direct payments is Jan 2, 2022.

The settlement terms outline that there are 277 local units of government – called subdivisions eligible to participate in Michigan.

Each of Michigan’s 83 counties are already part of that 277 total. Other municipalities are eligible if:

• the municipality is currently litigating against the defendants; or
• the municipality has a population of 10,000 people or more.

Eligible subdivisions that have not yet registered are asked to e-mail the Department of the Attorney General at AG-OpioidLitigation@michigan.gov for additional instructions.

Once again the participation deadline to receive direct payments is January 2, 2022.

Further information is available in the Press Release here: https://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,4534,7-359-92297_99936-573397–,00.html

If you have additional questions, please contact your Miller Johnson Attorney or our Government Affairs practice group.