What is an MDL, and what does it mean for your claim?

The short version

Multidistrict litigation (MDL) lets federal courts handle many similar lawsuits together. When people in different states sue over the same product or event, a panel of judges can send those cases to one court.

That court handles the shared pretrial work, like collecting evidence from the company. Your case stays your own. It keeps its own facts, injuries, and damages.

Who decides whether an MDL is created

Congress created the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) in 1968, in a law found at 28 U.S.C. § 1407. The panel is seven sitting federal judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States.

The panel decides two things:

• Whether civil cases pending in different federal districts share one or more common questions of fact
• Which judge and court will handle the combined pretrial proceedings

The JPML calls this transfer “centralization.” Its stated goals are to avoid duplicate discovery, prevent conflicting pretrial rulings, and save time and money for the parties and the courts.

What happens while a case is in an MDL

The judge assigned to the MDL, called the transferee judge, manages pretrial steps for every case in the group. Those steps can include:

• Discovery: both sides exchange documents and take sworn testimony
• Expert rulings: the judge decides which scientific experts juries may hear
• Bellwether trials: a few test cases go to trial so both sides can see how juries respond

A bellwether verdict doesn't decide anyone else's case. It can shape settlement talks, but it doesn't guarantee any result.

What happens when the pretrial work ends

An MDL covers pretrial proceedings only. Under § 1407, the panel sends each unresolved case back to the court where it was first filed. In Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss (1998), the Supreme Court held that the MDL court can't assign those cases to itself for trial.

Cases can also end earlier, through settlement, dismissal, or a ruling on a shared legal question. The JPML reports that it has created more than 1,800 MDL dockets involving over 1.3 million cases since 1968.

What an MDL means for you

Keep these points in mind when you see an MDL number on a campaign page:

• An MDL number shows that a court grouped similar federal cases. It doesn't mean anyone has proven that a product caused an injury
• Joining isn't automatic. A lawyer has to file a case for you, or you have to file your own
• State-court cases aren't part of a federal MDL, though some states have their own grouping procedures
• An MDL doesn't stop the filing deadline for your own claim. Only a licensed attorney can tell you which deadline applies