U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti. Courtesy photo

U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti of the District of New Jersey got his second multidistrict litigation assignment Wednesday, after a federal judicial panel sent about 30 lawsuits brought over Allergan Inc.'s breast implant recall to his New Jersey courtroom.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered the cases transferred to Martinotti, a move supported by Allergan, whose U.S. headquarters is in Madison, New Jersey.

"Allergan USA Inc. has its headquarters and principal place of business in this district, and represented at oral argument that significant common evidence, including witnesses, will be located there," wrote MDL Panel chairwoman Karen Caldwell, a judge on the Eastern District of Kentucky.

The lawsuits allege that Allergan, based in Dublin, knew that its Biocell textured breast implants, in tens of thousands of women, increased the chances of getting anaplastic large cell lymphoma but failed to warn about those risks. Allergan, which recalled its implants July 24, brought in Lori McGroder of Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City, Missouri, who argued in a Nov. 1 filing that New Jersey was home to Allergan's U.S. headquarters and recommended Martinotti, specifically.

McGroder called the recall a "precautionary measure" addressing the "low risk" of contracting anaplastic large cell lymphoma. She said that the plaintiffs sought costs associated with the removal and medical monitoring of the implants, despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in requesting the recall, making no such recommendation for asymptomatic patients.

Plaintiffs lawyers had pitched venues including the Central District of California, the Middle District of Tennessee, the Southern District of New York, the Southern District of Florida and the District of Kansas.

Martinotti got his first MDL assignment soon after his 2016 appointment to the federal bench, overseeing more than 1,000 lawsuits brought over diabetes drug Invokana. Johnson & Johnson agreed to settle a large chunk of those cases last year.

Lawyers pitching venues to the MDL panel have frequently floated Martinotti's name, most recently in the litigation against electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs. The MDL panel instead sent the cases to U.S. District Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California near Juul's headquarters in San Francisco.