Chinese drywall victims whose homes were built with wallboard manufactured by Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. have until December 2nd to join an omnibus class action lawsuit against Knauf. If you are interested in joining this lawsuit, you must contact an attorney and arrange to have your home inspected today.

Hundreds of homeowners have already filed suit against the manufacturers of tainted Chinese drywall. All federal drywall lawsuits were recently consolidated in a multidistrict litigation, MDL No. 2047, currently underway in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Under an agreement just announced by U.S. District Court Judge Eldon E. Fallon, Knauf has agreed to accept service of process and waive its express rights under the Hague Convention ONLY for homeowner plaintiffs who are named in an omnibus class action complaint to be filed by December 2, 2009 in In re Chinese Drywall Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2047.

Until now, Knauf had required that service of process of any lawsuit be made through the Hague Convention, which sets forth the method for the service of process abroad. The Hague Convention for the Service of Process Abroad requires claimants to pay approximately $15,000 per lawsuit, which allows for the translation of legal documents into Chinese and to have them presented to the appropriate authorities in China to obtain service on the Chinese drywall manufacturers.

This requirement had been a major obstacle to Chinese drywall victims hoping to recover damages from Knauf. This agreement provides an opportunity for any claimant who was reluctant before to get their claims on record without the delay and expense of filing through The Hague. It will also streamline the legal process that claimants have to go through by eliminating the time-consuming and costly process of serving individual complaints.

To join this lawsuit, you must submit proof that your home contains Knauf manufactured drywall to the Plaintiffs' Lead Counsel in the Chinese drywall multidistrict litigation, MDL 2047, no later than December 2. It's vitally important that you act today.

Knauf is alleged to be a subsidiary of the German based Knauf Gips KG and is one of several Chinese companies that has been accused of manufacturing and importing defective drywall from China into the U.S.