Baltimore’s lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors over the overdose crisis that has killed people at rates higher than in any other major American city can go to trial, a judge ruled Thursday.

Circuit Judge Lawrence P. Fletcher-Hill ruled that while the negligence claim in the case is not viable, the city can proceed a count of public nuisance. He said he’s confident that the case will eventually reach the Maryland Supreme Court.

At the same time, Fletcher-Hill said, the lawsuit presents difficult issues. He also expressed skepticism about several legal arguments that the city has advanced.

“This court has serious reservations about the use of public nuisance claims to address social problems of this breadth and complexity,” Fletcher-Hill said.

Bryan Doherty, a spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Scott, provided a statement on behalf of the Baltimore City Law Department.

“We are pleased that the Court recognized the amount of evidence that we have put forth in support of our public nuisance case against these bad actors in the opioid industry, and look forward to sharing our full case with a Baltimore City jury next month,” the statement reads. “We remain, as always, committed to ensuring that the defendants are held responsible for their actions in creating and furthering the opioids crisis in Baltimore.”

The lawsuit is set to go to trial on Sept. 16 and will be split into two phases.

First, a jury will determine if any of the opioid companies are liable and whether to award damages. Next, the judge will take up the question of how to address the public-health crisis.

In 2018, Baltimore sued several prescription painkiller manufacturers and distributors.

Though many state and local governments have agreed as part of a $26 billion national settlement to drop their lawsuits, the city decided to opt out and take on the pharmaceutical giants alone in a gamble for a larger payout.

The city has so far reached settlements with two companies, Allergan and CVS, each for $45 million.

Baltimore is expected to receive the full amount by the end of the year, and the city immediately committed $22 million to various community groups that work in the substance use and mental health fields.

More than 44% — or $20 million — of the Allergan settlement will go to the city’s outside counsel. The mayor’s office has not responded to questions about how much of the CVS settlement will go to attorneys.

Six companies — Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Walgreens — remain part of the case. Meanwhile, the claims against former Insys Therapeutics CEO John Kapoor will be handled at a later time.

In May, The Baltimore Banner and New York Times published a yearlong investigation that detailed how nearly 6,000 people in Baltimore have died from overdoses in the last six years — the worst drug crisis ever seen in a major American city.

The death rate in Baltimore from 2018 to 2022 was almost double that of any other large city. Until reporters informed them, that’s a statistic that several top leaders, including the mayor, did not know.

The city once had an aggressive overdose prevention strategy, but as leaders became preoccupied with other crises, many of those efforts stalled. Scott has been critical of the reporting about the city’s response and asserted that it amounted to “misguided victim blaming.”

As the trial date has approached, the mayor has clamped down on publicly discussing overdoses to protect the litigation, which could result in a transformative windfall to address the opioid epidemic.

The Scott administration forced the cancelation of four hearings in Baltimore City Council in response to The Banner/Times investigation, arguing that they could endanger the lawsuit. It has also declined to answer many questions about the strategy for combating overdoses.