Earlier this year, in late June, an extraordinary class-action trial regarding the opioid crisis began in state court in Suffolk County. The plaintiffs, Suffolk and Nassau Counties and New York State, claim that the defendants – manufacturers and distributors of opioid drugs and retail pharmacies that sold them – created a “public nuisance” by aggressively selling these drugs in New York while downplaying their dangers and the possibility of addiction.

There were so many parties and lawyers involved that trial opened in the first-floor auditorium of Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. The Hon. Jerry Garguilo is presiding over the case and has empaneled a jury. Under New York law, the plaintiffs are entitled to a jury trial on their public nuisance claim; the case is believed to be the first opioid trial of its kind to go before a jury. While a number of defendants settled before or over the course of the trial, the case is still going on as of mid-November, now in a courtroom in Suffolk County.

In early October, Professor Adam Zimmerman, a Professor at Loyola Law School and the author of a number of scholarly articles about class action suits, discussed the legal and policy issues raised by the opioid trial in Suffolk County with Associate Dean Rodger Citron. Their wide-ranging discussion will be of interest to anyone following the opioid litigation in Suffolk County and around the nation, as well anyone who teaches or is taking Torts and Civil Procedure.

Brought to you by the Touro Law Review. 

Our guest today is Professor Adam Zimmerman