In re Silicone Gel Breast Implants Products Liability Litigation

Seventy-eight separate lawsuits about silicone-gel breast implants were pending in federal court. Multiple motions were filed with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (panel) to transfer these lawsuits to one federal district court, known as a transferee forum. Although the motions requested several different forums, most of the litigants requested a district court in either northern California or southern Ohio. Most of the plaintiffs and their attorneys wanted the cases transferred to northern California, where two silicone-implant cases had been tried and had returned large verdicts for the plaintiffs. Some of the other plaintiffs and their attorneys, along with most of the defendants, wanted the cases transferred to southern Ohio. The Southern Ohio District Court had already conditionally certified a nationwide class of silicone-implant recipients and selected a committee of plaintiffs’ attorneys as lead counsel for the class. Each group’s briefs to the panel expressed significant concerns about the fairness of the other group’s choice. For instance, the Ohio group accused the California group of forum shopping for a plaintiff-friendly judge. The California group accused the Ohio group of having unfairly rushed to get a class certified in the Ohio court for the selfish purpose of making the Ohio forum look better as a transferee forum. The plaintiffs’ attorneys in both groups also accused each other of selecting a particular forum in order to gain more control over the litigation (and therefore receive more fees) rather than to protect their clients’ bests interests.