A jurisprudential milestone of sorts was recognized last month when the ever rising tide of federal MDL filings surpassed 50% − that’s right, over half – of all cases currently open in the federal judicial system now are contained in multi-district litigation. As reported, “the 248 MDL dockets accounted for 52 percent of all
MDLs are complicated. MDLs are chaotic, messy, and ugly unless they have structure and order. Bringing order to chaos. Something this blogger has championed for what’s starting to be more years than she wants to readily discuss. But without order, think of The Blob (the original 1958, Steve McQueen flick). It creeps. It crawls. It
Congress authorized multidistrict litigation “for the convenience of parties and witnesses” and to “promote the just and efficient conduct of such actions.” 28 U.S.C. §1407(a). As we’ve documented in many posts in our MDL topic, the reality – at least in product liability mass torts involving prescription medical products – is so far from
You can waive remand. That’s Lexecon, Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, 523 U.S. 26 (1998). But, if you agree to remand, you’re going back whence you came. So said the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation earlier this month in In re: Biomet M2A Magnum Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation, 2018
Late last month Bexis attended the annual ACI Drug and Medical Device Conference in New York. In between helping to lead the discussion in the pre-conference Defense Counsel War Room and speaking on 3D printing and product liability, Bexis picked up a couple of interesting ideas about dealing with problems concerning federal multi-district litigation (“MDL”)
J.P.M.L. Denies Request for New Gadolinium MDL
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the
It’s been a long road. Well after product liability litigation over Accutane and inflammatory bowel disease (“IBD”) had been thoroughly debunked everywhere else in the nation, such litigation lived on in New Jersey – for year after interminable year. First, a number of trials occurred, but literally every verdict for the plaintiffs was reversed on
We had occasion not long ago to reread closely Lexecon v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, 523 U.S. 26 (1998), the Supreme Court decision that clipped the wings of transferee judges in multi-district (“MDL”) litigation by reminding them that the MDL statute, 28 U.S.C. §1407, conferred no authority to try cases. Except for
So you’re sitting next to one of your client’s senior executives. You’re at a large table in a larger conference room. There’s a lawyer for every seat at the table. There’s a court reporter in the room. A videographer too. The lawyer across the table from you slides a document to your client and gives
Over 11 years ago the blog published a post called “Anatomy of a Mass Tort,” which endeavored to explain the life cycle of this type of litigation. We’ve decided to revisit and update that post, given the changes that have taken place over the intervening years.
And change it has. Our original post