New Orleans, LA (August 1, 2009) Baron & Budd shareholder Bruce Steckler has been appointed by the Honorable Judge Eldon Fallon to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC) in In Re: Chinese-Manufactured Drywall Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2047) in the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, where all Chinese drywall lawsuits pending in federal court have been consolidated for pretrial proceedings through the federal multidistrict litigation (MDL).

An MDL court is often assigned to handle complex civil cases where many different people have similar claims against the same or similar defendants. The MDL judge handles all the cases until they are ready for trial to speed things up and make sure that rulings are consistent.

The PSC is responsible for conducting and coordinating discovery on behalf of the plaintiffs in the MDL and acts as spokesperson for the plaintiffs during the pretrial stage of the litigation.

“I am honored to be appointed to the committee and determined to do whatever I can to expedite the litigation process,” says Steckler. “These homeowners need and deserve relief quickly—they need to be able to put their homes and their lives back together.”

All appointments to the PSC are for one year, but Steckler can and will apply for reappointment at the end of his term.