This story of Paul Farrell, Jr.’s federal case against opioid companies was originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A federal judge in West Virginia has indefinitely postponed a trial date in a lawsuit filed by the city of Huntington and Cabell County over the opioid crisis.
The lawsuit accuses drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson of fueling the local opioid epidemic.
U.S. District Judge David Faber on Thursday granted a motion by the defendants to continue the trial. No new trial date was set. It previously had been moved from Oct. 19 to Jan. 4.
Faber said a pretrial conference scheduled for Dec. 8 will be pushed back to Jan. 6 and Feb. 3.
“COVID-19 is ravaging our country, and so is the opioid crisis,” said Paul Farrell Jr., an attorney representing the plaintiffs. “Both require resources and dedication now to help those in need.
“We will work with the court in every way possible to continue pushing the litigation ahead for the sake of suffering communities nationwide.”