Lawyers who represent potentially 10 million Teflon cookware users in federal multidistrict litigation against DuPont are hoping to make stick their claims that they should have been warned of the potential health dangers of the coating.
But the fight has just begun.
First, they must convince a federal judge in Des Moines, Iowa -- where 14 class actions were consolidated and transferred from 12 other states in February -- to grant class certification to the plaintiffs. In re Teflon Products Liability Litigation, No. 06md1733 (S.D. Iowa).
The original cases, filed in federal court as required by the Class Action Fairness Act, come from U.S. district courts in California, Florida, Massachsetts, Pennsylvania and Texas, among other states.
The lawyers met presiding U.S. District Judge Ronald E. Longstaff for the first time last week at the first status conference, said Alan J. Kluger, lead plaintiffs counsel and a commercial litigator at Miami's Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin.
The plaintiffs attorneys, so far "an informal group of lawyers working together," have "met and spoken regularly over the last 10 months and dealt with the science issues and the document issues," Kluger said.
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