U.S. District Judge Dan Polster of the Northern District of Ohio. (Courtesy photo)
Reversing another key decision by the federal judge overseeing opioid lawsuits, an appeals court has struck the certification of a novel class of thousands of cities and counties that was designed to streamline a global settlement.
In a Thursday ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed U.S. District Judge Dan Polster's 2019 approval of the nation's first "negotiation class," which the lead plaintiffs lawyers in the multidistrict litigation pitched as a method to obtain a global opioid settlement involving a myriad assortment of parties. The 2-1 opinion is another rebuke to Polster, whose "clear abuse of discretion" prompted the Sixth Circuit to reverse one of his pretrial rulings on April 15.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Amanda Bronstad
Amanda Bronstad is the ALM staff reporter covering class actions and mass torts nationwide. She writes the email dispatch Law.com Class Actions: Critical Mass. She is based in Los Angeles.
