New York Opiate Overprescription Lawyer

FIGHTING FOR NEW YORK OPIOID OVERPRESCRIPTION VICTIMS

Richard J. Hollawell and Associates are one of the leading voices in the fight against opioid overprescription. It’s a good thing too — without the 15 years that we have spent holding doctors and companies responsible for their role in the opioid epidemic, crooked companies like Insys Therapeutics would still be paying doctors to overprescribe their addictive medications.

We are in the midst of an epidemic with rates of death and overdose from prescription medication at unprecedented levels. From 1999 to 2020, more than 263,000 people died in the United States from overdoses involving prescription opioids. In the pandemic, those numbers have ticked even higher.

None of this is consolation for those harmed by opioid overprescription. Our lawyers have the experience to help families ripped apart by this deadly practice to recoup a small part of what’s been taken from them. By continuing to hold these doctors and companies to the ethical standards that they’re obliged to uphold, we believe we can make a difference in turning back the tide of this epidemic.

Contact our opioid overdose lawyers today at 1-800-681-3550 or use the form below for a free consultation.

Pills & drugs, healthcare photo. Free public domain CC0 image.

OPIOID OVERPRESCRIPTION AND HOW IT HARMS PATIENTS

In the past decade, we’ve been seeing pharmaceutical companies and doctors finally facing consequences for decades of over-prescribing highly addictive opioids. These are the opioid medications most often prescribed for severe pain:

• Hydrocodone (Vicodin®)
• Oxycodone (OxyContin®, Percocet®)
• Oxymorphone (Opana®)
• Morphine (Kadian®, Avinza®)
• Codeine
• Fentanyl
• Hydromorphone
• Tapentadol

They are usually prescribed after a surgery or injury — opioid overpresciption occurs when they are prescribed in excess of the recommended amount. This overprescription often leads to misuse: which can manifest as taking the medication in higher doses than prescribed, through a different method (such as nasally in powder form or intravenously after dissolving the pills in water), using someone else’s prescription, or using with the intent to get high rather than to treat pain.

The addictive nature of prescription opioids and the difficulty of acquiring another prescription has led to the country’s widespread heroin epidemic, as heroin is far easier and cheaper to obtain than prescription pills.

If you or a loved one have undergone surgery or treatment for an injury and were prescribed an opioid painkiller and have suffered health problems or death from an opioid overdose, the medical provider could be held legally responsible if it is determined that they knowingly over-prescribed the painkillers. We’re here to help you build your case and ensure that you receive justice.

DETERMINING OPIOID OVERPRESCRIPTION MEDICAL MALPRACTICE IN NEW YORK

The statute of limitations for bringing a medical malpractice case in New York is two-and-a-half years from the date that the malpractice occurred. However, with opioid addiction, health issues, and death, the effects can take longer than that to occur or become noticeable. Luckily, New York has provisions for this exception, allowing the statute of limitations to apply from when the patients would have reasonably become aware of the health issues caused by the doctor’s actions.

These actions can include:

• Prescribing the wrong dosage
• Prescribing too many pills (the most common occurrence)  
• Prescribing the wrong opioid for the patient’s condition
• Prescribing opioids to patients with conditions that are not always safe to take opioid painkillers with

A number of factors can be considered when building an opioid over-prescription case, including:

• Whether the doctor adequately looked into the patient’s medical history for any conditions that may prove risky to take an opioid painkiller or for any history of substance abuse or addiction
• If the prescription was medically necessary for the patient
• If refills were provided without actually seeing the patient
• If the patient was warned about the risks of opioid painkillers
• Whether the doctor was receiving kickbacks for prescribing certain opioids or if they have a history of writing an excessive number of prescriptions for opioids to patients

Medicine in hand. Original public domain image from Flickr

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I THINK I HAVE AN OPIOID OVERPRESCRIPTION CASE? 

The nation is waking up to the root cause of opioid overprescription — pharmaceutical companies giving doctors money and other benefits to prescribe their drugs. This has led to doctors overprescribing opioid prescriptions at a record pace. In the case against Insys, investigators found that only 10% of patients who were prescribed their cancer treatment drug Subsys actually had an active cancer diagnosis. 

The statute of limitations for bringing suit in New York is different for medical malpractice cases — instead of the three years you have to initiate other new york personal injury cases, cases involving opioid overprescription only have two-and-a-half years to be filed. For those dealing with the fallout from such a situation, time is not on your side.

If you think your doctor has been over-prescribing opioid painkillers to you or a loved one and you’ve suffered from lasting health problems, addiction, or an overdose death as a result, please contact us at 1(800) 681-3550 so we can start building your case.