Allen County Commissioners passed a resolution today getting Allen County involved in an opioid lawsuit.
The resolution allows employment of a local law firm, Cory, Meredith, Witter and Smith, to represent the county in possible litigation against contributors of the opioid addiction crisis. The local law firm will work with one of three of the larger "umbrella" firms tackling the opioid crisis across the country. The umbrella firm the local firm will work with is Cleveland based Spangenberg, Shibley and Liber which is convenient since most of these cases are being heard in Cleveland.
"At this point, the judge will need to approve the resolution that was passed today," said Allen County Prosecutor Juergen Waldick. "We expect that to happen in the next day or so. Once that's done, the local law firm will proceed with the filing of the claim on our behalf."
According to Waldick, a settlement would be a likely outcome.
"Any money coming into a county goes to the general fund unless otherwise directed by statute, but I would expect that to go to the general fund or to go to the actual damaged agencies be that the sheriff's department, the health department or those sorts of things."
The local law firm hired, will not cost the county any money.
