From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisee, and this is the Daily.

A multi-billion dollar settlement in the opioid crisis reached the Supreme Court this week.

What a decision could mean for both the victims and the people responsible. Today my colleague Abby Vincicle explains. It's Wednesday, December 6th. So Abby, the opioid epidemic has been one of the biggest public health

disasters in generations and for years now there have been claims piling up against the company at the heart of it.

And that's Purdue Pharma.

And also against the family who owns that company, the Sacklers. And this week a case that really kind of

represents all of this ended up at the Supreme Court. Tell me about that case.

So the case before the justices this week has to do with how to resolve thousands of claims and suits filed against Purdue Pharma and members of the wealthy

Sackler family that controlled it. How courts can resolve those. It is an attempt to try to find accountability and to

wrestle with how to go about compensating not only victims in their

families but also states and municipalities across the country

that have had to deal with this epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Okay, so that's a pretty tall order. What is the answer to that?

How do you begin to do that?

Unpack that for me, Abby.

I don't know that I have an answer, but the way that the court system has tried to wrestle

with this is not one at a time lawsuits and courts throughout the country, but actually an attempt to bring most of the parties

involved into bankruptcy court.

Bankruptcy court.

That's right.

So bankruptcy court is one of the few places that allows a settlement

where you can bring in all of the parties involved in a case and try to figure

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