OneWheel Settlement Conference To Be Held Before Magistrate Judge To Discuss Resolutions for Electric Skateboard Injuries

A magistrate judge has been appointed to oversee Onewheel settlement negotiations at the request of plaintiffs and defendants.

Lawyers involved in Onewheel injury lawsuits will meet later this week with a U.S. Magistrate Judge, to discuss how potential settlement talks should be approached, which could result in an early resolution to the litigation.

Onewheels are electric skateboards with only one wheel, which can accelerate to speeds of about 20 miles per hour while the rider balances on the supposedly self-righting board. However, following a Onewheel recall issued in late September 2023, a growing number of product liability lawsuits have been filed, each raising nearly identical allegations that design defects caused devastating accidents, when a Onewheel stopped suddenly and nosedived.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in each of the lawsuits, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided last month 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.

Onewheel Lawsuit Settlement Conference

On February 5, Judge Freeman issued an order (PDF) on February 5 approving the appointment of Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler to oversee Onewheel settlement negotiations. Magistrate Beeler was jointly recommended by both plaintiffs and defendants for the role.

Two days later, on February 7, the Court announced Magistrate Beeler will oversee the first settlement conference on Thursday, February 15, 2024, at which time the parties will discuss the timing and logistics of negotiations, which may lead to a pathway to resolve large numbers of claims currently being pursued by individual’s nationwide.

If the litigation can not be resolved early in the pretrial proceedings, it is likely that Judge Freeman will move forward with a bellwether process, where a small group of representative claims will be prepared for a series of test trials, to help the parties gauge how jurors are likely to respond to expert testimony and evidence likely to be repeated throughout the OneWheel lawsuits

Last month, Judge Freeman announced the Court is planning to select at least six representative personal injury or wrongful death cases for early trial dates in the Onewheel MDL.

Each side has been instructed to propose no more than three personal injury or wrongful death Onewheel lawsuits that they believe are representative of the bulk of the cases in litigation by April 10, 2024. The parties have been directed to submit a concise statement if they object to one of the other side’s selections, and advised that each side should be prepared to substitute any selected case if an objection is granted.

Following the MDL proceedings, settlement negotiations and any bellwether trials, if the parties are still unable to settle Onewheel lawsuits or reach another resolution for the litigation, each claim may be later remanded back to the U.S. District Court where it originated for separate trial dates in the future.