The Basics: Multidistrict Litigation
Madison Keyes
What is Multidistrict Litigation?
Legal proceedings related to consumer products often involve thousands of plaintiffs from all over the country. This can be overwhelming for the federal court system. To accommodate the number of lawsuits filed in this type of litigation, the legal system has developed a special procedure to simplify the litigation process and resolve common issues. This procedure is known as multidistrict litigation (“MDL”). MDLs involve cases in which a large number of plaintiffs file lawsuits against the same company over the same issue. According to the American Bar Association, half of all federal, civil lawsuits are in an MDL.
An MDL is not a single trial that resolves all of the cases in that litigation; instead, the litigation is consolidated under one federal judge who handles pretrial matters that are common to all of the defendants. The goal of an MDL is to conserve resources and promote consistent pretrial rulings across different lawsuits that involve similar legal issues. In doing so, MDLs may encourage settlement between the parties.
What is a Bellwether Trial?
A bellwether trial is an individual plaintiff’s trial within the first pool of cases tried in an MDL. These trials allow the parties to test their theories and arguments before a jury. The court chooses which cases will be included as part of this pool. These cases proceed to court in the same jurisdiction as the MDL. Bellwether trials are used as an example of possible outcomes in future, similarly situated cases. The results of which may also influence settlement discussions. Most cases in an MDL are not tried. Instead, a majority of cases in the MDL are resolved before the case is litigated before a jury.
Class Action Lawsuits Versus Multidistrict Litigation
Class action lawsuits and multidistrict litigation are closely linked, but have critical differences. Both class actions and MDLs are case aggregation devices utilized in an effort to more efficiently resolve lawsuits. However, the means by which these devices operate are very different from one another.
Class action lawsuits combine individual plaintiffs into a single lawsuit with a single outcome. Class actions are designed for situations where multiple plaintiffs have suffered identical injuries due to the same cause. In contrast, MDLs function as a collection of individual cases that maintain their separate identity throughout the MDL process. The injuries of the plaintiffs in an MDL are similar, but not identical, although the legal questions in an MDL regarding the cause of the injuries must be the same. Importantly, the outcome of one case in an MDL, does not mean the same outcome applies to all cases in the MDL.
