NSA telecom lawsuits sent to California court

NSA TELECOM LAWSUITS SENT TO CALIFORNIA COURT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeremy Pelofsky]
Seventeen lawsuits against U.S. telephone companies for allegedly unlawfully aiding a government spy program have been consolidated into a California federal court, said a ruling made public on Thursday. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation sent the class-action lawsuits filed in 13 district courts across the country into the Northern District of California before Judge Vaughn Walker, who has already been hearing one of the cases. We conclude that the Northern District of California is an appropriate transferee forum in this docket because the district is where the first filed and significantly more advanced action is pending before a judge already well versed in the issues presented by the litigation," the panel said in an August 9 order. The government and telephone companies had sought to move the cases to a Washington, D.C. court while a plaintiff's attorney asked the California judge handle the cases.
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