Working with the Susman Godfrey law firm, CCL today filed a brief in support of remand of the City of Sacramento's opioids lawsuit to state court. The case had been removed from state court to federal court by Walgreens and then consolidated into the massive federal Multi-District Litigation (MDL) case being heard in federal court in Ohio. There, it languished, along with its motion to remand.

      Under instructions from the Sixth Circuit, the federal court began the process of selecting small groups of cases for briefing on whether the case belonged in federal or state court. The defendants filed their brief last month, which argued that the case inevitably raises federal issues and belongs in federal court. Sacramento, for all the government entities in its group, argued that it only raised state causes of action and that no federal issues are implicated by its pleading. The decision on remand now goes to Judge Polster, who is presiding over the MDL.