U.S. Court appoints lead counsel in Volkswagen multi-district litigation

(Reuters) — A U.S. federal court has appointed Elizabeth Cabraser as plaintiffs’ lead counsel to conduct and coordinate the multi-district litigation over civil lawsuits filed against Volkswagen A.G., according to a court filing on Thursday.

Ms. Cabraser would also lead the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee to hear cases pertaining to Volkswagen’s use of software to evade emissions limits, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District Of California said.

Earlier in December, Volkswagen and the U.S. Department of Justice had both urged the U.S. Judicial Panel on multi-district litigation to send the cases to Detroit, but were ultimately assigned the Northern District of California in San Francisco, where the first Volkswagen case in the country was filed.

The court said it has appointed 21 attorneys to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in addition to Ms. Cabraser for speedy resolution and has also appointed Van Eaton as the government coordinating counsel.