Hon. Dan Polster

Dan Aaron Polster (born December 6, 1951) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Polster mediated a settlement between the city of Cleveland and the family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy who was killed by a white police officer in 2014. In December 2017, a federal judicial panel selected Polster to preside over more than 3,000 consolidated prescription opioid-related lawsuits in multidistrict litigation known as the National Prescription Opiate Litigation. A trial for the litigation began in October 2021.

Born in Cleveland, Polster received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1972 and earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1976. He was a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1976 to 1982, and an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of Ohio from 1982 to 1998.

On July 31, 1997, Polster was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio vacated by David Dudley Dowd Jr. Polster was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 31, 1998, and received his commission on August 3, 1998. He assumed senior status on January 31, 2021.

Multidistrict opioid litigation. In December 2017, a federal judicial panel selected Polster to preside over more than 3,000 consolidated prescription opioid-related lawsuits in multidistrict litigation known as the National Prescription Opiate Litigation.[15] The multidistrict litigation is a master case designed to simultaneously resolve all opioid lawsuits against drug companies and pharmacies. The defendants include makers of prescription painkillers, companies that distribute them, and pharmacies that dispense them. Legal experts have described the opioid litigation as the largest and most complex civil lawsuit in U.S. history.