Purdue’s Choice of NY Bankruptcy Court Part of Common Forum Shopping Strategy, Experts Say
Although Purdue Pharma LP is based in Connecticut and incorporated in Delaware, the company at the center of the opioid crisis filed for bankruptcy in New York, in a court where its case would be assigned to the only judge who works there, reports The Washington Post.
Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, on the bench since 2002, has long experience with complicated bankruptcy cases. On Friday he heard arguments over whether to take the unusual step of halting action in about 25 lawsuits brought by various states against Purdue and members of the Sackler family, which owns the company.
The Post article quoted Lynn M. LoPucki, a professor at the UCLA School of Law: “Of course Purdue strategically picked White Plains over all other courts. That’s like asking whether a chess master has a strategy or just makes moves randomly.”
According to The New York Times, the judge on Friday cited mounting costs of litigation that are siphoning funds that could otherwise go to abate the opioid crisis and ordered a pause in legal action by states against Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sacklers.
