Headlines

AmLaw Litigation Daily featured Joe Rice and other members of the National Prescription Opiate MDL’s PEC in its Litigators of the Week column July 23, 2021 following the proposed $26 billion settlements that, if approved, would resolve claims against Johnson & Johnson and opioid distributors, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson.

Three more lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by former priest, Father Arthur Fernando, have been filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, The Church of Our Lady Help of Christians, Our Lady Help of Christians School, and the Catholic School Region of Staten Island are defendants in the suits.

ALM and The National Trial Lawyers has listed Motley Rice as Firm of the Year in the Governmental Representation and Mass Torts categories of their 2021 Elite Trial Lawyers award. Environmental attorney Esther Berezofsky was also one of 11 winners of the Elite Women of the Plaintiffs’ Bar award, and Sarah Hansel was one of 40 winners of the inaugural Rising Stars of the Plaintiffs Bar award.  

Allegations in the suits filed span several decades, ranging from 1969 to 1998. In addition to Senzer, Greenlawn, N.Y.’s Oldfield Middle School, Harborfields Central School District, and the district’s Board of Education are named in the suits and are accused of fostering an environment that allowed the abuse to occur.

This summer, a 7-year-old boy died from a tragic residential elevator accident at a beach rental home in Outer Banks, N.C. The boy suffered fatal injuries after getting caught between the inner and outer accordion doors of the moving elevator, trapping him between the bottom of the car and the upper door frame.

A preliminary $26 billion settlement was announced today with Johnson & Johnson and the nation’s “Big Three” opioid distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson.

Frameworks for nationwide settlement agreements to resolve litigation regarding the nation’s opioid crisis were announced. The two proposed agreements are with the United States’ largest pharmaceutical distributors, or the “Big Three,” McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., and AmerisourceBergen, and with opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.

Claimants alleging software company Blackbaud Inc. neglected to protect the private information of tens-of-thousands of its clients and millions of people across the globe defeated a motion to dismiss on July 1, 2021.

The Boy Scouts of America agreed to one of the largest settlements for sexual abuse survivors in U.S. history to compensate more than 60,000 men who allege they were abused as children.

At about 1 a.m. on June 24, a wing of the Champlain Tower South Condo Complex in Surfside, Fla., collapsed. As of June 25, four people died in the collapse and more than 159 people who were in the building at the time of collapse remain missing as rescue crews continue to work the scene. Fifty-five units were affected by the collapse.