Arkansas Counties and Cities Win $216 Million Opioid Settlement Against 65 Pharma Defendants

For more than a decade, opioid overdoses ranked as the second leading cause of accidental death in Arkansas. Prescription painkillers including hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl flowed into communities across the state through a supply chain that linked manufacturers to wholesale distributors to retail pharmacies, with oversight failures at every level. The human toll accumulated quietly in small cities and rural counties that lacked the resources to fight back alone.

Mike Rainwater saw a way to change that. Because Rainwater, Holt and Sexton already worked closely with Arkansas counties and the Arkansas Association of Counties, the firm was well positioned to help build something larger. The firm became one of four that made up the coalition legal team, alongside Reddick Moss of Little Rock, Wyly-Rommel of Texarkana, and Birmingham-based Cory Watson Attorneys, whose F. Jerome Tapley led the legal team. The Arkansas Municipal League and the Arkansas Association of Counties retained the group jointly to represent their members.

On March 15, 2018, the coalition filed suit in the Circuit Court of Crittenden County on behalf of 72 counties and 210 cities -- together representing roughly 90 percent of the state's population. The complaint named 65 defendants: manufacturers who made and marketed the drugs, three wholesale distributors who controlled the bulk of the supply chain (Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen), five retail pharmacy operations, and five physician defendants. The three counties that initially stayed out -- Drew, Jefferson, and Pulaski -- later joined, making the coalition statewide.

The case became one front in a national wave of litigation. Thousands of cities and counties across 40 states filed parallel claims, eventually forcing the industry into settlement discussions. In July 2021, the four largest defendants agreed to pay $26 billion nationally to resolve the litigation. Arkansas's allocated share came to $216 million, to be divided equally among the state, its counties, and its cities.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced the allocation in October 2021. The funds are earmarked for opioid prevention, education, and treatment programs. Cities and counties formally joined the settlement in early 2022.