Supervisors vote to continue opioid settlement litigations

As more organizations continue to get sued over their roles in the opioid crisis, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors was given the chance Dec. 19 to opt out of its current lawsuits and pursue settlements with those other entities. But in doing so the county would likely have to start all over from scratch.

Under recommendation from the county attorney, the board of supervisors voted 3-0 to have Jasper County remain in the opioid settlement litigation currently being pursued and to not opt out. As a result of pursuing these lawsuits, the county has been receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The county’s opioid settlement committee has been in charge of providing those funds to local organizations whose projects will have an impact in the community. Focus areas for projects include the prevention and abatement of the use of opioids and with the treatment of those with addictions to opioids.

Jasper County Attorney Scott Nicholson said supervisor Brandon Talsma received an attorney-client communication from the attorneys representing the county in the opioid settlement suits. More entities are being added to the settlement all the time, which ultimately means more money for the county.

However, there has been a junction in the lawsuits, and the attorneys are now asking Jasper County officials if they would either like to remain in the lawsuit and continue down the path already created or to opt out of the lawsuits and pursue suing some of the newer entities on their own.

“The attorneys representing us are recommending to us that we remain in the lawsuit,” Nicholson said. “Like I indicated, we’re going to continue to receive more money, and this money is going to continue to funnel in anywhere between 18 to 20 years from now. If we opt out of the lawsuit, we have to find attorneys.”

Which basically means the county would have to start from scratch, Nicholson added. Jasper County began pursuing litigation about six years ago when Mike Jacobsen was still the county attorney and advised the board of supervisors to join in on the lawsuits. Nicholson advised the board to stay in the lawsuits.

“That’s what our attorneys are advising us,” Nicholson said. “I’ve discussed it with our (opioid settlement) committee, and we are recommending to you today … that we stay in it. We’ve already given away a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our process is working, I think, pretty well.”

Regardless of what the county chose to do, there were no penalties involved apart from starting the process over again. Neither the county attorney nor the supervisors have any interests in starting over. If the county did decide to do that, Nicholson said it will take years to get through its own suit. Which wastes money.

Talsma said, “It doesn’t sound like they have any participants who are opting out. Most of them seem to be sticking with it.”

Nicholson added, “I don’t know of any entity in Iowa that is opting out that is already in this lawsuit. The reason we’re before the board is they are suggesting having board action on this to stay in so that we can communicate back to them that we are going to stay in. We have to have this done by Jan. 5.”