November 10, 2023
Insys was an additional major pharmaceutical company that filed for bankruptcy in the face of over 1,200 lawsuits that sought to hold the company liable for its role in creating the opioid crisis.
Gilbert represented the Victims Restitution Trust (the “VRT”), a Delaware statutory trust created pursuant to Insys Therapeutics, Inc.’s Second Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Liquidation (the “Insys’s Plan”). The VRT was established to, among other things, recover proceeds from Insys’s products liability insurance policies and make distributions to underlying claimants. To accomplish these goals, under the terms of Insys’s plans, the VRT was assigned rights to Insys’s products liability insurance policies.
In connection with its representation of the VRT, Gilbert initiated a lawsuit in Delaware Superior Court against two of Insys’s products liability insurers (Gilbert was able to negotiate a resolution of the VRT’s claims as to a third insurer before litigation commenced). The lawsuit sought declaratory relief that the insurers were obligated to provide coverage for the underlying opioid claims asserted against Insys and also included claims that the insurers had breached their obligations under the policies. Ultimately, within a year of filing suit, Gilbert was able to negotiate a settlement with both of the remaining insurer defendants on behalf of the VRT so that the VRT could distribute all available proceeds to claimants quickly.