Court Schedules OneWheel Lawsuits For Bellwether Trials in April and June 2026

OneWheel trials will help determine the amount of damages juries may award for injuries caused by recalled electric skateboards, and promote settlement negotiations.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Onewheel lawsuits has scheduled two “bellwether” trials, which will begin on April 6, 2026 and June 15, 2026, to help the parties gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout dozens of claims being pursued by individuals injured when the electric skateboards suddenly nosedived and crashed.

Onewheels have become increasingly popular in recent years, featuring a flat skateboard surface with only one wheel, which is electrically powered and can accelerate to speeds of about 20 miles per hour.

Following a Onewheel recall issued in late September 2023, a number of product liability lawsuits were filed against the manufacturer, Future Motion, each raising nearly identical allegations that design defects caused devastating accidents when a OneWheel stopped suddenly and nosedived.

The lawsuits claim that a “pushback” feature, which the device offers to control speed by slowly lifting the front end, can malfunction and cause the Onewheels to suddenly nosedive or shut off. This problem has caused riders to be suddenly thrown off the skateboard, leading to fractures, traumatic brain damage and other severe injuries.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in complaints filed throughout the federal court system, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided late last year to consolidate Onewheel accident lawsuits as part of an MDL before U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in the Northern District of California, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

First Two Onewheel Lawsuit Trial Dates Set

Following a case management conference held last month, Judge Freeman issued an order (PDF) on August 1, outlining the schedule for preparing a group of representative personal injury and wrongful death cases for early trial dates.

Following the close of all written discovery on July 31, 2024, the parties are now moving forward with other fact discovery, including depositions of parties and potential witnesses, as well as conducting inspections of relevant evidence.

The Court indicates that all case-specific fact discovery must be complete by April 30, 2025. Lawyers will then disclose expert witnesses that each side intends to call at trial, who will offer opinions about specific and general causation in the bellwether claims. Those experts will then be deposed, and the Court indicates that all bellwether expert discovery must be complete by September 30, 2025.

Leading up to the first Onewheel trial, Judge Freeman will consider pretrial motions and challenges by either side to the admissibility of certain expert witnesses under the federal Daubert standard, with deadlines for motions and responses throughout November and December 2025.

Judge Freeman indicates that OneWheel Daubert hearings for the first two cases selected for trial will be held on January 15, 2026. The Court will then hold a pretrial conference on February 26, 2026, with the first OneWheel trial scheduled to begin on April 6, 2026. That will be followed by a pretrial conference in the second bellwether case on May 21, 2026, with that trial beginning on June 15, 2026.

Onewheel Bellwether Trial Schedule Order:

• 4/30/2025 – Close of case-specific discovery;
• 5/31/2025 – Deadline for Plaintiff expert disclosures;
• 6/31/2025 – Deadline for Defendant expert disclosures;
• 9/22/2025 – Representative cases sequenced for trial;
• 9/30/2025 – Close of Onewheel expert discovery in bellwether cases;
• 10/31/2025 – Deadline for any Daubert motions in bellwether trial eligible cases;
• 12/5/2025 – Deadline for responses to Daubert motions;
• 12/19/2025 – Deadline for replies to Daubert motions;
• 1/15/2026 – Hearing on dispositive motions in bellwether trial cases;
• 2/26/2026 – Pretrial conference for first bellwether trial;
• 4/6/2026 – First Onewheel bellwether trial begins;
• 5/21/2026 – Pretrial conference for second bellwether trial;
• 6/15/2026 – Second Onewheel bellwether trial begins.

August 2024 Onewheel Lawsuit Settlement Update

While the outcome of these bellwether trials will not have any binding impact on other individuals pursuing lawsuits over Onewheel injuries, they are expected to help the parties determine the range of payouts per person that juries may award if each claim is scheduled for trial.

Leading up to the start of the first trial date, Judge Freeman previously indicated that a series of Onewheel lawsuit settlement conferences will be held before Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler. In April, the Court ordered the parties to hold a “pre-settlement” conference on June 27, which will be followed by a first settlement conference on August 13 and a second mediation on October 1.

It is expected that negotiations to explore a potential global settlement of all OneWheel injury lawsuits may continue up to the expected start of the first bellwether trial in April 2026.

Earlier this week, Judge Beeler issued an order (PDF) scheduling a separate OneWheel class action settlement, which will be held on November 5, 2024, to discuss resolving claims brought on behalf of all consumers who owned one of the recalled OneWheel skateboards, even if they did not sustain any injuries in an accident.

Following these discussions and the recently scheduled bellwether trials, if the parties fail to reach agreements to globally settle Onewheel claims or otherwise resolve large numbers of claims, it is expected that Judge Freeman will consider remanding dozens of individual cases to U.S. District Courts nationwide for separate trial dates in the future.