National Prescription Opiate

This is one of the largest and most consequential mass-litigation dockets in the federal system, consolidating claims by cities, counties, states, tribes, hospitals, third-party payors, and other institutional plaintiffs alleging that opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies fueled the opioid crisis through deceptive marketing and inadequate controls on suspicious drug shipments. Centralized in the Northern District of Ohio in 2017, the litigation has produced a series of global settlements exceeding $50 billion in total value: up to $21 billion from the three largest distributors, additional billions from manufacturers including the maker of a leading opioid product and other pharmaceutical companies, and more than $13 billion from major pharmacy chains. Despite that scale of resolution, the docket still carries 2,907 pending actions.

For a funder, this is overwhelmingly an institutional-plaintiff, public-entity abatement docket rather than an individual personal-injury pre-settlement funding opportunity: the plaintiffs still litigating are largely government entities, tribes, hospital systems, and third-party payors whose claims were not resolved by the major global settlements, either because they opted out, filed later, or fall outside the settlement classes' defined scope. Claim value for this population is generally tied to documented abatement costs, healthcare expenditures, and public-services impact rather than individual injury damages.

Criterica Capital's commercial litigation finance line applies to institutional plaintiffs, smaller municipalities, hospital systems, tribes, and payors, still pursuing claims outside the global settlement framework, with underwriting benefiting substantially from the extensive liability and damages record the earlier global settlements and litigation already established. A structure and litigation brief on the current claim population and settlement landscape is also available.

Pre-settlement funding is a non-recourse purchase of a portion of the proceeds of a pending legal claim — not a loan. If the case does not result in a recovery, nothing is owed. Rates, fees, and repayment terms are disclosed in full in the funding agreement, which the applicant’s attorney reviews before signing. Availability and terms vary by state.