Metro Nashville to Receive $23M From Historic National Opioid Settlement Benefiting Taxpayers by Funding Public Programs to Fight Ongoing Addiction Issues

City of Nashville Mayor John Cooper has announced that the city of Nashville will receive $23 million to recoup taxpayer funds allocated to emergency government responses to the opioid epidemic from 2017 through the present. The news comes in the wake of an historic $26 billion nationwide settlement with American opioid manufacturers and distributors reached in early 2022. Mayor Cooper noted that the funds are expected in May of 2022, and will be directed to specified addiction treatment services.

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and Manson, Johnson and Conner serve as co-counsel to the city on behalf of taxpayers in the litigation.

“Mayor Cooper and his administration have been key players in negotiating this historic settlement that will positively affect our community for generations,” said Mark Chalos, Managing partner of Lieff Cabraser Nashville.

In 2017, Lieff Cabraser filed a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers on behalf of the city of Nashville seeking justice and restitution for Nashville’s ongoing battle against local fallout from the ongoing opioid crisis. The suit sought the recovery of taxpayer money and resources spent to combat the devastations of the opioid epidemic on the Nashville community. Read a copy of the complaint in the Nashville and Davidson County Opioid Lawsuit.

The $26 billion settlement reached with Johnson & Johnson and three of the country’s largest opioid distributors resolves claims over the companies’ alleged role in fueling the massive opioid addiction crisis nationwide. More than 90 percent of litigating government entities in the U.S. are participating in the global settlement.

The settlement is the first of its kind to administer resources directly to state and local governments specifically for relief programs to help rebuild after the depredations of the opioid epidemic. The settlement will distribute funds based on population, adjusted for the proportionate share of harms caused by the opioid plague. The share of the impact is to be calculated using detailed and objective national data, including the total amount of opioids shipped to a state, the number of opioid-related deaths that occurred in the state, and the number of people who suffer opioid use-related disorders in the state.