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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Multidistrict litigation</span></span>
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<p>In <a href="United_States" title="United States">United States</a> law, <b>multidistrict litigation</b> (<b>MDL</b>) refers to a special federal legal <a href="Civil_procedure" title="Civil procedure">procedure</a> designed to speed the process for handling complex cases with numerous plaintiffs making similar claims, such as <a href="Air_disaster" class="mw-redirect" title="Air disaster">air disaster</a> litigation or complex <a href="Product_liability" title="Product liability">product liability</a> suits.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Description">Description</h2></div>
<p>MDL cases occur when "civil actions involving one or more common questions of fact are pending in different districts."<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In order to efficiently process cases that could involve hundreds (or thousands) of plaintiffs in dozens of different federal courts that all share common issues, the <a href="Judicial_Panel_on_Multidistrict_Litigation" title="Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation">Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation</a> (JPML) decides whether cases should be "centralized" under the MDL statute ("centralization" is the JPML's term of art for MDL transfers), and if so, where the cases should be transferred.<sup id="cite_ref-Herr_Page_20_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Herr_Page_20-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Cases subject to MDL are sent from one court, known as the transferor, to another, known as the transferee, for all pretrial proceedings and <a href="Discovery_(law)" title="Discovery (law)">discovery</a>. If a case is not settled or dismissed in the transferee court, it is remanded (that is, sent back) to the transferor court for trial.<sup id="cite_ref-Herr_Page_21_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Herr_Page_21-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>It is common for the JPML to learn after ordering centralization of the existence of additional pending actions involving the same or similar questions of fact as the actions it had just centralized. Either they had already been filed but the JPML was unaware of them at the time, or they were filed after centralization. These so-called "tag-along actions" are almost always also subject to centralization once they come to the attention of the panel.<sup id="cite_ref-Herr_Page_311_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Herr_Page_311-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Statute">Statute</h2></div>
<p>The MDL statute is <a href="Title_28_of_the_United_States_Code" title="Title 28 of the United States Code">28 U.S.C.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/1407">§ 1407</a> in the <a href="United_States_Code" title="United States Code">United States Code</a>. Section 1407 came about because of the first large-scale complex litigation to engulf the <a href="Federal_judiciary_of_the_United_States" title="Federal judiciary of the United States">federal judiciary</a>: the gigantic <a href="United_States_antitrust_law" title="United States antitrust law">antitrust</a> scandal in the U.S. <a href="Electrical_equipment" class="mw-redirect" title="Electrical equipment">electrical equipment</a> industry in the early 1960s.<sup id="cite_ref-Peterson_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The scandal resulted in the filing of 1,912 separate civil actions in <a href="United_States_district_court" title="United States district court">district courts</a> in 36 <a href="United_States_federal_judicial_district" title="United States federal judicial district">federal judicial districts</a>, which together pleaded a total of 25,714 claims involving 20 product lines.<sup id="cite_ref-Peterson_5-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In January 1962, Chief Justice <a href="Earl_Warren" title="Earl Warren">Earl Warren</a> appointed a Co-ordinating Committee for Multiple Litigation (CCML) of the United States District Courts.<sup id="cite_ref-Peterson_5-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> (The CCML's name reflects the fact that it was still commonplace at the time to include a hyphen in the word "coordinate.") The chair of the CCML was <a href="Alfred_P._Murrah" title="Alfred P. Murrah">Alfred P. Murrah</a>, then the chief judge of the <a href="United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Tenth_Circuit" title="United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit">Tenth Circuit</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Peterson_5-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The CCML responded to the emergency with a number of <i>ad hoc</i> procedures that would become commonplace in multidistrict litigation, such as consolidated national <a href="Deposition_(law)" title="Deposition (law)">depositions</a> and document depositories.<sup id="cite_ref-Peterson_5-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Through aggressive case management, the CCML was able to terminate the electrical equipment litigation by March 1967; only nine cases went to trial and only five of those went to verdict.<sup id="cite_ref-Peterson_5-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>In the course of its work, the CCML discovered that complex litigation involving similar issues in multiple districts was becoming a regularly recurring problem in federal courts, and recommended the enactment of a formal statutory foundation for their management in March 1964.<sup id="cite_ref-Peterson_5-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It was the CCML's secretary, <a href="Phil_C._Neal" title="Phil C. Neal">Phil C. Neal</a>, who first conceived of the concept now known as multidistrict litigation.<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This eventually led to the enactment of the MDL statute four years later and the creation of the JPML as a permanent replacement for the CCML.<sup id="cite_ref-Peterson_5-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Besides Murrah, other key players in the legislative maneuvering that led to the enactment of the MDL statute included federal district judge <a href="William_H._Becker" title="William H. Becker">William H. Becker</a> and Senator <a href="Joseph_Tydings" title="Joseph Tydings">Joseph Tydings</a>, the chair of the <a href="United_States_Senate_Committee_on_the_Judiciary" title="United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary">Senate Judiciary Committee</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The CCML's original plan for turning Neal's idea into a reality was a statute which would merely enable the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules (an existing advisory body to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the <a href="Judicial_Conference_of_the_United_States" title="Judicial Conference of the United States">Judicial Conference of the United States</a>) to revise the <a href="Federal_Rules_of_Civil_Procedure" title="Federal Rules of Civil Procedure">Federal Rules of Civil Procedure</a> (FRCP) to create rules to govern multidistrict litigation.<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The CCML changed course in June 1964 after observing the messy and time-consuming battle in the Advisory Committee over its proposed amendments to the FRCP joinder rules—especially Rule 23, the source of the modern opt-out <a href="Class_action" title="Class action">class action</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The CCML's new plan was to "cut the rule makers out of the process entirely and instead lodge power over MDL in the new JPML".<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This is why MDL procedure ended up evolving on its own track, in a manner distinct from traditional federal civil procedure.<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The New York corporate defense bar recognized the significant risks posed by the future aggregation of plaintiffs' claims in MDLs to large defendants (like their own clients).<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In 1966, they successfully manipulated the <a href="American_Bar_Association" title="American Bar Association">American Bar Association</a>'s (ABA) House of Delegates into a vote to oppose the CCML's proposed bill, and this stalled the bill in Congress.<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In 1967, the judges supporting the proposed MDL statute and the lawyers opposing them met face to face.<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> They hammered out a compromise under which the lawyers dropped their opposition to the bill in exchange for the chance to assist with the drafting of what eventually became the <i>Manual on Complex Litigation</i> (a handbook of nonbinding guidelines for judicial management of MDLs).<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> After the ABA dropped its opposition, Congress finally passed the bill, and the MDL statute was signed into federal law by President <a href="Lyndon_B._Johnson" title="Lyndon B. Johnson">Lyndon B. Johnson</a> on April 29, 1968.<sup id="cite_ref-Bradt_6-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Cases">Cases</h2></div>
<p>In the decades since Congress enacted the MDL statute in 1968, MDLs have evolved into the federal judiciary's primary method for managing complex civil litigation. Once a small minority, MDLs have gradually become the dominant component of the U.S. federal civil caseload.<sup id="cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In early 2020, the JPML published statistical data revealing that by the end of 2018, 51.9 percent of all pending federal civil cases had been centralized into MDLs.<sup id="cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This was the first time that more than half of all federal civil cases had ended up in MDLs.<sup id="cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In particular, "of the 301,766 civil cases pending in the federal court system at the close of 2018, 156,511 were pending in 248 MDLs."<sup id="cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> As percentages of the total number of MDLs, the top three categories were products liability (32.9%), antitrust (24.1%), and sales practices (12.1%).<sup id="cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In terms of the percentage of the total number of civil cases in MDLs, products liability was overwhelmingly dominant at 91 percent.<sup id="cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>In connection with MDLs' rise to prominence, they have become subject to widespread criticism from attorneys for both plaintiffs and defendants because they largely operate outside of the traditional civil procedure framework established by the FRCP.<sup id="cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In other words, over half of American federal civil actions are no longer actually litigated under the rules taught in American law schools, as the MDL procedure has evolved from a "pretrial management tool toward an <a href="Alternative_dispute_resolution" title="Alternative dispute resolution">alternative dispute resolution</a> medium setting the table for global settlements."<sup id="cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Most MDLs involve a few dozen to a few hundred cases. The notable exception is MDL No. 875, based in the <a href="Eastern_District_of_Pennsylvania" class="mw-redirect" title="Eastern District of Pennsylvania">Eastern District of Pennsylvania</a>, which is the largest and longest-lasting MDL. It was created in 1991 by the JPML to manage all <a href="Asbestos" title="Asbestos">asbestos</a> personal injury and wrongful death cases in the federal courts. As of 2011, over 121,000 cases had been transferred into MDL No. 875, and over 108,000 cases had been settled, dismissed, or remanded, leaving about 13,000 pending.
</p><p>One controversial aspect of MDLs is that the MDL statute does not grant the transferee court any discretion as to remand for trial, even when both courts would prefer to keep the case in the transferee court for trial. After all, by the time a case reaches the trial stage, the transferee has become intimately familiar with the issues, the parties, and their attorneys (because the transferee court will normally have decided one or more motions for <a href="Summary_judgment" title="Summary judgment">summary judgment</a> at that point), while the transferor court must spend time catching up on what happened while the case was away in the MDL. To reduce that burden on transferor courts, the <i>Manual on Complex Litigation</i> advises transferee courts to provide transferor courts with an order summarizing what has already happened and what issues remain for discovery and trial.<sup id="cite_ref-Manual_Page_225_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Manual_Page_225-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The MDL statute had always been intended to cover only pretrial proceedings. But as soon as Section 1407 was enacted in 1968, federal courts began to hold that the transferee court had the power to transfer a case to itself for all purposes—including trial—a so-called "self-transfer". The JPML recognized the existence of the self-transfer procedure as early as 1972, and eventually endorsed that practice in its rules. In 1998, however, the <a href="U.S._Supreme_Court" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. Supreme Court">U.S. Supreme Court</a> brought self-transfers to a halt by ruling that the plain language of the MDL statute <i>required</i> remand back to the transferor for trial, and invalidated the JPML's rule.<sup id="cite_ref-Herr_Page_39_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Herr_Page_39-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The primary exception to the current interpretation of Section 1407 as prohibiting self-transfers is that the parties can voluntarily consent to keep a case in the transferee court for trial.<sup id="cite_ref-Herr_Page_40_11-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Herr_Page_40-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Another controversial aspect of MDLs is whether they provide adequate protection of the rights of the parties (as contrasted against litigating each case on an individual basis). A 2021 <a href="University_of_Georgia_School_of_Law" title="University of Georgia School of Law">University of Georgia School of Law</a> survey of MDL plaintiffs found broad dissatisfaction with the quality of the legal representation they had received.<sup id="cite_ref-Burch_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Burch-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Frankel_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Frankel-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> According to the survey's organizers, it was the first-ever large-scale survey of MDL plaintiffs.<sup id="cite_ref-Frankel_13-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Frankel-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> More than 75 percent said they were not kept informed about developments in their case, and 60 percent said they did not entirely trust their lawyers to act in their best interests.<sup id="cite_ref-Frankel_13-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Frankel-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The survey respondents also were critical of the lawyers' fees.<sup id="cite_ref-Frankel_13-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Frankel-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="State_law">State law</h2></div>
<p>When state law cases filed in federal court under <a href="Diversity_jurisdiction" title="Diversity jurisdiction">diversity jurisdiction</a> are consolidated into MDLs, the <a href="Erie_doctrine" title="Erie doctrine">Erie doctrine</a> comes into play and confronts federal district judges with some of the most difficult, multilayered legal questions they will ever see in their careers. The problem is that when sitting in diversity and asked to decide dispositive pretrial motions like the motion for <a href="Summary_judgment" title="Summary judgment">summary judgment</a>, the transferee court must apply the law of the state of the transferor court, which could be located anywhere in the United States.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> But in complex product liability cases such as airplane crashes, the victims might not even be American citizens and the plaintiffs' losses may not even have occurred within the borders of the United States,<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and of course, every U.S. state <a href="Conflict_of_laws_in_the_United_States" title="Conflict of laws in the United States">has its own choice-of-law rules</a>. The result is that a MDL judge often has to sort through the laws of two, three, or four separate jurisdictions, none of which may be the state which the transferee court sits in, just to determine whether a plaintiff has a viable cause of action. Naturally, the lawyers in the proceeding must first educate themselves and the judge about the relevant laws from all those jurisdictions.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="State_courts">State courts</h2></div>
<p>As one expert has noted, "perhaps the most serious limitation" of the MDL statute is that the JPML "has no authority over actions pending in <a href="State_court_(United_States)" title="State court (United States)">state courts</a>". This arises from a fundamental limitation of federal courts: they are courts of <a href="Limited_jurisdiction" title="Limited jurisdiction">limited jurisdiction</a> under the <a href="Constitution_of_the_United_States" title="Constitution of the United States">federal Constitution</a> and lack the <a href="General_jurisdiction" title="General jurisdiction">general jurisdiction</a> of state courts.<sup id="cite_ref-Herr_Page_35_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Herr_Page_35-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Congress has partially addressed this problem by making it easier to <a href="Removal_jurisdiction" title="Removal jurisdiction">remove</a> certain types of actions from state courts to federal courts (e.g., the <a href="Class_Action_Fairness_Act_of_2005" title="Class Action Fairness Act of 2005">Class Action Fairness Act of 2005</a>), but has not been able (and is probably unable under the current Constitution) to enact a statute granting <a href="Plenary_power" title="Plenary power">plenary</a> jurisdiction to the JPML to implement pretrial coordination and consolidation between federal and state courts.<sup id="cite_ref-Herr_Page_36_17-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Herr_Page_36-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>In the absence of federal guidance, state courts have developed several different approaches to intrastate pretrial coordination and consolidation of civil actions pending in different trial courts that share common questions of fact. A 2021 article found that as of that year, twenty-six states appear to have no approach at all; thirteen states have developed formal mechanisms either modeled after or roughly analogous to the MDL statute; seven states have procedures allowing for the affected trial court judges to coordinate with each other; and four states have a history of <i>ad hoc</i> consolidation but no formal mechanism in place.<sup id="cite_ref-Clopton_18-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Clopton-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>There is much diversity among the states that have some form of MDL procedure. Only Colorado, New York, Texas, and West Virginia follow the federal model of maintaining a standing panel of judges to handle centralization issues. Only Kansas, New York, and Texas follow the federal rule that transfer is solely for pretrial proceedings and cases must be remanded back to transferor courts for trial. As for the other states with a MDL-like procedure, the general rule is that transfer is for all purposes including trial, and centralization issues are handled either by the state supreme court sitting <i><a href="En_banc" title="En banc">en banc</a></i>, the chief justice of the state (acting alone or on the recommendation of another judge), or an <i>ad hoc</i> panel.<sup id="cite_ref-Clopton_18-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Clopton-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="International_influence">International influence</h2></div>
<p>The American experience with managing MDLs came to the attention of <a href="Harry_Woolf%2C_Baron_Woolf" title="Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf">Lord Woolf</a> and led to major reforms in <a href="English_law" title="English law">English law</a> during the late 1990s.<sup id="cite_ref-Marcus_19-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Marcus-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This process culminated in the 1998 promulgation of the <a href="Civil_Procedure_Rules" title="Civil Procedure Rules">Civil Procedure Rules</a>.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Footnotes">Footnotes</h2></div>
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<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="Title_28_of_the_United_States_Code" title="Title 28 of the United States Code">28 U.S.C.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/1407">§ 1407</a></span>
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</style><cite id="CITEREFHerr2022" class="citation book cs1">Herr, David F. (May 2022). <i>Multidistrict Litigation Manual: Practice Before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation</i> (2022 ed.). St. Paul: Thomson Reuters. p. 20. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781731924407</bdi>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Herr_Page_21-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Herr_Page_21_3-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFHerr2022" class="citation book cs1">Herr, David F. (May 2022). <i>Multidistrict Litigation Manual: Practice Before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation</i> (2022 ed.). St. Paul: Thomson Reuters. p. 21. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781731924407</bdi>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Herr_Page_311-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Herr_Page_311_4-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFHerr2022" class="citation book cs1">Herr, David F. (May 2022). <i>Multidistrict Litigation Manual: Practice Before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation</i> (2022 ed.). St. Paul: Thomson Reuters. p. 311. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781731924407</bdi>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Peterson-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Peterson_5-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Peterson_5-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Peterson_5-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Peterson_5-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Peterson_5-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Peterson_5-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Peterson_5-6"><sup><i><b>g</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Peterson_5-7"><sup><i><b>h</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFPetersonMcDermott1970" class="citation journal cs1">Peterson, Colvin A. Jr.; McDermott, John T. (August 1970). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VRNHW_o2trgC&pg=PA737">"Multidistrict Litigation: New Forms of Judicial Administration"</a>. <i>ABA Journal</i>. <b>56</b>. Chicago: American Bar Association: <span class="nowrap">737–</span>746.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Bradt-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-6"><sup><i><b>g</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-7"><sup><i><b>h</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-8"><sup><i><b>i</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-9"><sup><i><b>j</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bradt_6-10"><sup><i><b>k</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFBradt2018" class="citation journal cs1">Bradt, Andrew (2018). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5539&context=flr">"The Looming Battle for Control of Multidistrict Litigation in Historical Perspective"</a>. <i>Fordham Law Review</i>. <b>87</b> (1): <span class="nowrap">87–</span>106<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">20 August</span> 2022</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Wittenberg-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-6"><sup><i><b>g</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Wittenberg_7-7"><sup><i><b>h</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFWittenberg2020" class="citation news cs1">Wittenberg, Daniel S. (February 19, 2020). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201021172757/https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/publications/litigation-news/business-litigation/multidistrict-litigation-dominating-federal-docket/">"Multidistrict Litigation: Dominating the Federal Docket"</a>. <i>Litigation News</i>. American Bar Association. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/publications/litigation-news/business-litigation/multidistrict-litigation-dominating-federal-docket/">the original</a> on October 21, 2020.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Manual_Page_225-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Manual_Page_225_8-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFFederal_Judicial_Center2004" class="citation book cs1"><a href="Federal_Judicial_Center" title="Federal Judicial Center">Federal Judicial Center</a> (2004). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/mcl4.pdf"><i>Manual for Complex Litigation</i></a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span> (4th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Federal Judicial Center. pp. <span class="nowrap">225–</span>226.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Herr_Page_39-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Herr_Page_39_9-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFHerr2022" class="citation book cs1">Herr, David F. (May 2022). <i>Multidistrict Litigation Manual: Practice Before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation</i> (2022 ed.). St. Paul: Thomson Reuters. p. 39. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781731924407</bdi>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a href="Lexecon_Inc._v._Milberg_Weiss_Bershad_Hynes_%26_Lerach" title="Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach">Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach</a>,</i> <a href="List_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_cases%2C_volume_523" title="List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 523">523</a> <a href="United_States_Reports" title="United States Reports">U.S.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/523/26/">26</a> (1998).</span>
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<li id="cite_note-Herr_Page_40-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Herr_Page_40_11-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFHerr2022" class="citation book cs1">Herr, David F. (May 2022). <i>Multidistrict Litigation Manual: Practice Before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation</i> (2022 ed.). St. Paul: Thomson Reuters. p. 40. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781731924407</bdi>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Burch-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Burch_12-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFBurchWilliams2022" class="citation journal cs1"><a href="Elizabeth_Chamblee_Burch" title="Elizabeth Chamblee Burch">Burch, Elizabeth Chamblee</a>; Williams, Margaret S. (November 2022). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://live-cornell-law-review.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Burch-Williams-final-1.pdf">"Perceptions of Justice in Multidistrict Litigation: Voices from the Crowd"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. <i>Cornell Law Review</i>. <b>107</b> (7): <span class="nowrap">1835–</span>1925.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Frankel-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Frankel_13-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Frankel_13-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Frankel_13-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Frankel_13-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFFrankel2021" class="citation news cs1">Frankel, Alison (August 9, 2021). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/first-ever-survey-mdl-plaintiffs-suggests-deep-flaws-mass-tort-system-2021-08-09/">"First-ever survey of MDL plaintiffs suggests deep flaws in mass tort system"</a>. <i>Reuters</i>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-14">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=243691060434973206"><i>Chang v. Baxter Healthcare Corp.</i></a>, 599 F.3d 728, 732 (7th Cir. 2010). The Seventh Circuit was reviewing a decision by a <a href="United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_Illinois" title="United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois">federal district court in Illinois</a> as to whether the <a href="Law_of_California" title="Law of California">law of California</a> or the <a href="Law_of_Taiwan" title="Law of Taiwan">law of Taiwan</a> would control in a case consolidated into that court.</span>
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<li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-15">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5677211686646678441"><i>In re Paris Air Crash,</i></a> 622 F.2d 1315 (9th Cir. 1980). This MDL arose from the crash of <a href="Turkish_Airlines_Flight_981" title="Turkish Airlines Flight 981">Turkish Airlines Flight 981</a> in France on a <a href="Orly_Airport" title="Orly Airport">Orly</a> to <a href="Heathrow_Airport" title="Heathrow Airport">Heathrow</a> flight; U.S. courts had jurisdiction because the plane was manufactured by <a href="McDonnell_Douglas" title="McDonnell Douglas">McDonnell Douglas</a> in <a href="Long_Beach%2C_California" title="Long Beach, California">Long Beach, California</a>.</span>
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<li id="cite_note-Herr_Page_35-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Herr_Page_35_16-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFHerr2022" class="citation book cs1">Herr, David F. (May 2022). <i>Multidistrict Litigation Manual: Practice Before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation</i> (2022 ed.). St. Paul: Thomson Reuters. p. 35. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781731924407</bdi>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Herr_Page_36-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Herr_Page_36_17-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFHerr2022" class="citation book cs1">Herr, David F. (May 2022). <i>Multidistrict Litigation Manual: Practice Before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation</i> (2022 ed.). St. Paul: Thomson Reuters. p. 36. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781731924407</bdi>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Clopton-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Clopton_18-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Clopton_18-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFCloptonRave2021" class="citation journal cs1">Clopton, Zachary D.; Rave, D. Theodore (April 18, 2021). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1457&context=nulr">"MDL in the States"</a>. <i><a href="Northwestern_University_Law_Review" title="Northwestern University Law Review">Northwestern University Law Review</a></i>. <b>115</b> (6): <span class="nowrap">1649–</span>1736<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">December 10,</span> 2022</span>.</cite></span>
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<li id="cite_note-Marcus-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Marcus_19-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFMarcus_Jr.1995" class="citation book cs1">Marcus Jr., Richard L. (1995). "Déjà Vu All Over Again? An American Reaction to the Woolf Report". In Zuckerman, A. A. S.; Cranston, Ross (eds.). <i>Reform of Civil Procedure: Essays on 'Access to Justice'</i>. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. <span class="nowrap">219–</span>244. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9780198260936</bdi>.</cite></span>
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