{"id":7508,"date":"2018-02-22T21:53:25","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T02:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10028\/uncategorized\/schuyler-county-opioid-lawsuit-fight-continues-forward\/"},"modified":"2018-02-22T21:53:25","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T02:53:25","slug":"schuyler-county-opioid-lawsuit-fight-continues-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/article\/schuyler-county-opioid-lawsuit-fight-continues-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Schuyler County Opioid Lawsuit Fight Continues Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public Hearing Scheduled on Local Law to Declare the Opioid Epidemic a Public Nuisance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Schuyler County will hold a public hearing on March 12 to review a proposed local law declaring the opioid epidemic<\/a> and its effects on the County a public nuisance.<\/p>\n

According to Schuyler County Attorney Steven Getman, the draft local law is the next step in the County\u2019s lawsuit against the manufacturers and distributors of opioid pain killers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose and intent of this legislation is to allow the County to recover costs related to healthcare, family and social services, criminal justice, addiction and rehabilitation, and many other areas have significantly increased,\u201d Getman explained.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMany of these costs are paid by the County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon passage, the local law would be followed by the filing of a lawsuit against the manufacturers and distributers of prescription opiates for damages to the County arising out of the fraudulent and negligent marketing and distribution of opiates in and to the County<\/p>\n

The County Legislature voted in August<\/a> to retain the firm of Napoli Shkolnik, to file that lawsuit on their behalf.\u00a0 Napoli Shkolnik will work with Getman, as special counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past few years, despite its small population, Schuyler County has seen an uptick in opioid and heroin use and overdose,\u201d Getman said.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTo date, County officials have expended significant resources to help its residents battle opioid addiction and prevent further deaths. The lawsuit will seek to reimburse the County for its expenses related to the opioid crisis as well as provide the County with financial assistance to continue this battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to County Administrator Tim O\u2019Hearn, the lawsuit will be filed at no risk to the County, as Napoli Shkolnik will work on contingency basis that will cover all costs associated with the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy voting to go forward with local law, the County Legislature hopes to lessen the burden to taxpayers and seeks to hold manufacturers and distributors responsible for their role in the opioid epidemic,\u201d O\u2019Hearn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese drug companies have poisoned our communities and polluted our children\u201d says Paul Napoli<\/a>, of counsel for Napoli Shkolnik. Paul Napoli leads the charge with Hunter Shkolnik<\/a> against drug companies nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe painkiller overdose epidemic is a classic case of putting profits before people,\u201d he said. \u201cMany opioid manufacturers were so intent on selling as much product as possible that they either turned a blind eye towards, or intentionally buried, reports that these drugs were highly addictive and potentially deadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Napoli added that \u201cour door is open\u201d to other New York municipalities who are also fed up with the overdose epidemic, and that Napoli Shkolnik has the firepower to go toe-to-toe with the big pharma lawyers.<\/p>\n

Napoli has dedicated much of his career to mass tort litigation. He has fought on behalf of 9\/11 injury victims<\/a> at both the statehouse and the courthouse, and he and his team also took on the big energy companies which contaminated much of Long Island\u2019s drinking water supply with dangerously high levels of methyl tertiary butyl ether.<\/p>\n

\n

The Public Hearing on the proposed local law will be held in the Legislative Chambers of the Schuyler County Courthouse, 105 Ninth Street, Watkins Glen, New York on Monday, March 12, 2018 at 6:30 pm. The public is invited and encouraged to attend and voice their concerns regarding the opioid epidemic and the costs to Schuyler County and its communities.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A copy of the proposed local law, as introduced February 12, 2018, can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public Hearing Scheduled on Local Law to Declare the Opioid Epidemic a Public Nuisance Schuyler County will hold a public hearing on March 12 to review a proposed local law…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[858,860],"class_list":["post-7508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opioid-crisis","tag-hunter-shkolnik","tag-paul-napoli"],"acf":[],"page_builder_type":"gutenberg","gutenberg_data":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/napolilaw.lemonadestand.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}