Dan A. 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.

Dan A. Polster
Judge Polster
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
Incumbent
Assumed office January 31, 2021
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
In office August 3, 1998 – January 31, 2021
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	David Dudley Dowd, Jr.
Succeeded by	vacant
Personal details
Born	Dan Aaron Polster December 6, 1951 Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Nationality	American
Education	Harvard College (A.B.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)

Education and career

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Polster received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Harvard College in 1972 and 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.

Federal judicial service

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.

In December 2017, a federal judicial panel selected Polster to preside over more than 200 consolidated prescription opioid-related lawsuits in multidistrict litigation.[1][2]

In June 2019, a three judge panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Polster's blocking of the release of court records in opioid cases was inappropriate.[3][4]

References

1. Hoffman, Jan. "Can This Judge Solve the Opioid Crisis?", The New York Times, 5 March 2018.
2. Heisig, Eric. "Here's why a federal judge presiding over opioid lawsuits thinks settling is important", Cleveland.com, 19 January 2018.
3. "US Appeals Court Says Judge Went Too Far on Drug Data Order". Claims Journal. 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
4. Lesser, Benjamin; Levine, Dan; Girion, Lisa; Dowdell, Jaimi. "How judges added to the grim toll of opioids". Reuters. Retrieved 2019-06-25.

External links

• Dan A. Polster at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.