Publication Archive: Hunter Shkolnik

The Sixth Circuit on Thursday rejected eleventh-hour bids by the Ohio attorney general and drug companies to block an upcoming bellwether trial in multidistrict litigation accusing drugmakers of fueling the opioid crisis, rejecting the state’s arguments that the counties in the case are usurping its authority. “Cuyahoga County is very pleased to see that both writs…Read the article

Palm Beach County was the epicenter of the opioid crisis. Now it’s home to an office of the family whose company has been blamed for the opioid epidemic. The Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, paid $6.8 million for the Glidden Spina Architecture building, which is in the Palm Beach area. The building purchase was…Read the article

Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy filing Sunday night may not dramatically affect Summit County’s ongoing lawsuit against Big Pharma, attorneys said. The county has engaged outside law firms to try the case, and lead counsel Hunter Shkolnik of New York-based Napoli Shkolnik, PLLC, said they’d known this was coming for a while. Shkolnik said Purdue Pharma was…Read the article

Two Ohio countries, Summit and Cuyahoga, are set to go to trial next month in the consolidated opioid litigation taking place in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio under the direction of Judge Dan Polster, and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost believes this will put the individuals in his state  one that has been hit especially…Read the article

The country has its eyes on an Ohio opioid MDL handling more than 2,000 lawsuits brought by more than 1,200 cities, counties, and tribes against drug manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost recently filed a mandamus petition at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to enjoin District Judge Dan Polster from proceeding…Read the article

The state of Oklahoma plans to take Johnson & Johnson to court after a judge ruled the state can try a civil case that would order the company to pay more than $17.5 billion for their alleged role in the opioid crisis. At the end of May, Hunter Shkolnik, a partner at Napoli Shkolnik, told…Read the article

In March, Judge Polster ruled that BakerHoestetler couldn’t represent Endo in the bellwether cases brought by the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, finding that this nonpublic information “may go to the heart of plaintiffs’ damages claims” and if used “could materially prejudice Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.” “BakerHostetler and Ms. Rendon are unhappy that Judge…Read the article

Hunter Shkolnik, a partner at Napoli Shkolnik, is representing hundreds of counties in opioid cases, including one of the first to be tried as part of large multi-district litigation starting in October. He said: “The Insys verdict is a harbinger of very bad things to come for the manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy chains involved in…Read the article

Plaintiffs’ lawyer Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik, who represents bellwether plaintiff Cuyahoga County, told me the expert witness reports were supposed to remain confidential. “I really don’t see a rational, calculated benefit for defendants from disclosing those numbers,” he said. Shkolnik, who declined to confirm his experts’ damages estimates, said the defense goal appears to be to delay…Read the article

As the nation’s opioid crisis has devastated thousands of families, it also has taken a crippling financial toll on cities, small towns and counties around the country. That cost was acknowledged last week in a settlement between OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and the state of Oklahoma, a settlement that included $12.5 million for local governments.…Read the article