Dougherty Co. selects law firm group for opioid litigation

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - As the opioid epidemic continues to spiral out of control, our Southwest Georgia leaders are working to fight this epidemic.

Dougherty County Commissioners have now chosen a law firm to represent them in opioid litigation.

Blasingame, Burch, Garrard, and Ashley is the law firm commissioners selected moving forward with this opioid litigation.

It was a six to one vote on Monday favoring the Athens-based law firm group.

BBGA was selected out of the five groups that presented to commissioners last week.

A representative from the group said last week when presenting to commissioners they have represented more than 100 women across the southeast after faulty uterus mesh was shipped to the U.S. from Europe causing infections.

The representative said the issue caused incontinence and the faulty mesh became a nationwide problem that was the biggest multidistrict litigation in U.S. history.

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Now the BBGA group wants to tackle the opioid epidemic within South Georgia communities.

Dougherty County Attorney Spencer Lee said the damages here will be specific to Dougherty County.

"We are a long time down the road before we are thinking about any kind of recovery. Apparently yes, these big-time law firms think there's something here just like they do in class action lawsuits," explained Lee.

While other Southwest Georgia communities are joining the fight against the nationwide opioid epidemic, the city of Tifton has also chosen the Blasingame, Burch, Garrard, and Ashley law firm to represent them.

Lee said litigation could take between two to three years.

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