Van Zandt County commissioners voted to authorize the county judge to sign a subdivision participation and release form to join the national Purdue Pharma settlement in the ongoing opioid litigation.

The countys outside counsel (Simon Greenstone & Panatier) and local counsel (Reid Martin, Martin & Walker) recommended participation. The county attorney said the national settlement plan for Purdue Pharma would pay $6.5 billion over 15 years, with the first payments beginning in 2026, and that distributions would be allocated among participating government entities according to the settlement formula. The county official said the specific share for Van Zandt County is unknown at this time.

The court was told that declining to participate would leave the county to litigate on its own; counsel advised that participating with other governmental entities generally improved leverage and access to the settlement funds. The court approved the motion to authorize the county judge to sign the participation form and set the county to receive potential settlement distributions per the national settlement process.

No dollar amount for the countys expected recovery was provided during the discussion; the court noted the deadline to sign to participate was stated in the materials from counsel.