Opioid Defendants Head Back To Sixth Circuit

Opioid Defendants Head Back To Sixth Circuit

Introduction

Several opioids defendants, following a quiet appellate proceeding, returned to the Sixth Circuit filing a mandamus petition challenging the U.S. District Judge Dan Polster's order to produce “transactional dispensing data for the entire United States” from 2006 forward.

The petition treats MDL proceedings as exempt from the normal application of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The ACLU and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce both filed amicus briefs in support of the petition. The Chamber (joined by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores), emphasized the applicability of Federal Rule 26(b)(1)’s proportionality rule, which, according to them, commands the trial judge to account for the costs and risks of producing nationwide prescription data. Meanwhile, the ACLU highlighted the serious privacy concerns of patients' medical conditions.

Also, according to the minutes of a conference placed on Friday's docket, Judge Polster pushed back the start of Cuyahoga and Summit counties' opioid trial from Oct. 13 to Nov. 9.