Considerations in Choosing Counsel for Multidistrict Litigation Cases and Mass Tort Cases

• Author: Stanwood R. Duval Jr.
• Position: Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
• Pages: 391-395

Considerations in Choosing Counsel for Multidistrict

Litigation Cases and Mass Tort Cases

The Honorable Stanwood R. Duval, Jr.∗

The Eastern District of Louisiana has been a magnet for

significant multidistrict litigation (MDL) cases and mass tort cases,

particularly in the past ten years.1 For example, Judge Eldon Fallon

has presided over the Vioxx, Propulsid, and Chines e-Manufactured

Drywall MDL cases.2 The Deepwater Horizon incident involving

British Petroleum Company, Transocean, and others is currently

lodged before Judge Carl Barbier.3 Judge Kurt Engelhardt has been

handling the FEMA Trailer Formaldehyde Products Liability

Litigation.4

Since 2005, I have presided over In re Katrina Canal Breaches

Consolidated Litigation, or the so-called “Katrina Umbrella,” under

which hundreds of cases were consolidated for pretrial litigation

purposes, as well as for trial of certain exemplar cases.5 The Katrina

Umbrella is unique in that a number of different categories of

litigation were included therein.6 Any complaint filed that was in any

way related to damages arising as a result of a levee or floodwall

breach was consolidated into the Katrina Umbrella and t hen placed in

a specific category.7

Though these are just a few examples, a multitude of MDL cases

have occurred and continue to occur in the Eastern District.8

Therefore, as a result, this District has a great deal of experience in

Copyright 2014, by THE HONORABLE STANWOOD R. DUVAL, JR.

∗ Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

1. James C. Gulotta & Lauren E. Gods hall, Multidistrict Litigation in New

Orleans: Why the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation F requently Favors the

City that Care Forgot, U.S. LAW WEEK, Nov. 2, 2010, at 1.

2. In re Vioxx Prods. Liab. Litig., MDL No. 1657, 2005 WL 756742 (E.D. La.

Feb. 18, 2005); In re Propulsid Prods. Liab. Litig., 208 F.R.D. 133 (E.D. La. 2002);

In re Chinese-Manufactured Drywall Prods. Liab. Litig., MDL 2047, 2012 WL

92498 (E.D. La. Jan. 10, 2012).

3. In re Oil Spill by Oil Rig “Deepwater Hori zon” in the Gulf of Mex., on

Apr. 20, 2010, MDL 2179, 2013 WL 144042 (E.D. La. Jan. 11, 2013).

4. In re FEMA Trailer Formaldehyde Prods. Liab. Litig., 583 F. Supp. 2d 758

(E.D. La. 2008).

5. In re Katrina Canal Breaches Consol. Litig., 647 F. Supp. 2d 644 (E.D. La.

2009).

6. See 5th Circuit Upholds Government’s Liability for Katrina Levee Failures,

WESTLAW J. GOV’T CONT., Apr. 2, 2012, at 1, available at 2012 WL 1077662.

7. Id. “The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louis iana

consolidated many of the suits and organized the litigation into several categories of

plaintiffs.” Id.

8. See supra notes 1−4.