When a man complained about a drug he was given for leg and back pain, his doctor altered his prescription to methadone, a narcotic pain killer.

The man took the prescription to a Walgreens pharmacy and took the first of the pills.

36 hours later he was found dead on the bathroom floor.

The decedent suffered from neuropathy, a problem that affects the peripheral nerves which causes pain in the back and legs. He was given prescriptions for Neurontin and OxyContin, but felt uncomfortable taking these drugs as he would fall asleep unexpectedly.

The family’s physician prescribed a change to the drug, methadone, dispensed as 10-milligram pills. The prescription stated he should swallow four tablets two times a day for the chronic pain.

But the local Walgreens pharmacy added an instruction which stated to take one tablet “as required”. This is a vast difference between what he should have been advised. The quantities the man took were sufficient to cause his death.

Walgreens spent at least $1 billion on safety systems at their pharmacies over the last few years. Prescription errors rarely take place. But when they do, there are serious consequences for the families concerned.

If there is a prescription error, the victim or his/her family may be entitled to file a wrongful death or personal injury lawsuit against the entity which prescribed the drug. Decisions by juries in Arizona, Illinois and Florida have come to $61 million in verdicts related to prescription errors in Walgreens pharmacies in just three trials alone.

Once a personal injury lawsuit has begun, it can still take up to three years to fully litigate. Meanwhile, expenses continue to mount and plaintiffs sometime find themselves in a financial bind.

Lawsuit Settlement Funding Provides Relief

Settlement funding transactions (also known as lawsuit loans or lawsuit funding) are a perfect match for this type of situation.

Settlement funding companies offer advances to litigants while they wait for their lawsuit to reach settlement. In return, plaintiffs pledge a portion of the proceeds of the case, once it settles.

Almost anyone with a lawsuit can apply for settlement funding. Most companies require an attorney be retained. For personal injury and wrongful death cases, attorneys normally agreed to a contingency fee, which means the attorney is only paid for his/her services, if and only if the lawsuit is successful.

Likewise, lawsuit settlement funding transactions are only repaid when a lawsuit reaches settlement or is otherwise successfully resolved. In other words, lawsuit funding is a no risk proposition for litigants in a financial crunch.

Settlement funding companies do not make credit checks because settlement funding is not an advancement of credit. Although sometimes called lawsuit loans, the deal is actually a partial selling of a future asset. As such, the creditworthiness of the applicant is irrelevant.

Further, there are no restrictions of the money’s use. The lawsuit cash advance is used entirely at the client’s discretion.

Thousands of plaintiffs use settlement loan companies to relieve their financial burdens while waiting for settlement of wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=3809406&page=1