Yesterday I had the honor to present oral argument before the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. This is a very distinguished panel of Federal Judges from around the country who meet once a month to decide if particular groups of cases should be consolidated before a single judge for purposes of discovery, and, if so, to decide which judge should hear the cases.

The Court sat yesterday in Asheville, North Carolina to decide several dozen matters. One of them was MDL 1953, the Heparin Disaster cases. The first attorney to argue asked the cases be transferred to San Francisco, even though there as yet are no cases pending there, because San Fran is closest to China, where some of the discovery needs to be done.

I argued second for Toledo. My reasons included the following:

Toledo has the best resources and is most convenient, and we were the first to file, had the most cases, and it would be best not to have the cases heard in Baxter's back yard of Illinios.

I pointed out that Chief Judge Jim Carr has the time, experience, dedication and resources to resolve these cases in a fair and expeditious manner, pointed out that our Toledo courthouse has state of the art equipment in the clerk's office and courtroom, run by tech savvy skilled personnel.

I indicated that Baxter's claim that all the witnesses were in either New Jersey or Illinois was really incorrect. The main issue in this case isn't what Baxter or SPL did, but what they didn't do. Why they failed to perform critical customary testing of incoming raw material for purity, and why they relied on Chinese subcontractors to perform this critical purity testing without documentation. NMR analysis is a basic fundamental test that is done for purity. It should have been used for Heparin.

Finally I concluded that Toledo was centrally located and convenient to the entire country. I pointed out that the federal courthouse in Toledo was only 45 minutes from Detroit Metro, which has a state of the art Northwest hub with connections throughout the world, and that it is much easier to drive from Detroit Metro to the Toledo courthouse than to go from OHare to downtown Chicago. I ended by mentioning that Northwest has just announced a new nonstop flight from Detroit to Shanghai, China.

After my argument other attorneys argued for Puerto Rico, Illinois and New Jersey. I am cautiously optimistic that the cases may be referred here. I expect a decision within thirty days.

Labels: Baxter, Heparin, heparin attorney, heparin lawsuit, heparin lawyer, MDL, MDL; Multi-District Litigation, nightline, OSCS, over sulfated chondroitin sulfate