Originally published in Law360, New York on October 18, 2012.

If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent raid of the pharmacy at the center of the ongoing meningitis outbreak leads to criminal charges, attorneys say they could bog down civil litigation brought by recipients of the outfit's steroids but ultimately help those plaintiffs prevail on their claims.

The FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations and members of the U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts searched the New England Compounding Center's Framingham, Mass., facility Tuesday. Authorities have been tight-lipped about the nature of the investigation, and the warrant used to conduct the search remains under seal.