Oklahoma judge miscalculated how much Johnson & Johnson would pay for the state's opioid crisis

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Oklahoma judge miscalculated how much Johnson & Johnson would pay for the state's opioid crisis

By Stephanie Becker and Emily Smith, CNN
Updated 1155 GMT (1955 HKT) October 16, 2019

(CNN) — The Oklahoma judge who recently ordered pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for its role in the state's opioid crisis says he made a mathematical error when calculating the judgment.

As part of the landmark verdict in August, Judge Thad Balkman set aside $107,683,000 to help combat neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS. The problem -- he added three too many zeroes and meant to award $107,683.

The state had asked for nearly $17.2 billion to compensate for the deaths of state residents.

On Tuesday, Balkman agreed with Johnson and Johnson regarding the error. "That's the last time I use that calculator," he said.

It's not clear how this will impact the overall judgment.

-snip-

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/15/health/oklahoma-opioid-judgment-miscalculation/index.html

[CurtEastPoint]

1. And we put someone who cannot do simple math in charge of people's lives.

Republican. Seriously.