Indira Talwani, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be United States District Judge for the District of Massachusetts. January 8, 2013.
Lawyers who sued Stryker Orthopaedics over recalled hip implant components wanted a single judge to oversee about 30 cases filed in the past year. At the top of their list was U.S. District Judge Frank Donovan in Minnesota—an obvious choice, having overseen thousands of cases brought over another Stryker hip implant that settled for $1 billion.
But on April 5, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation instead chose U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, a relative newcomer to the federal bench who has never before handled a multidistrict litigation proceeding, or MDL.
In its order, the panel noted that five of the Stryker cases were already pending in her courtroom. Further, it said, she had “not yet had an opportunity to preside over an MDL docket.”
SEE ALSO:
