Follow up to postings on the Gulf Coast oil spill, via the US Courts, Panel Seeks to Streamline, Consolidate Oil Spill Litigation : “The work of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has been in the spotlight recently because of filings related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The JPML has played a key role in coordinating and consolidating large-scale federal civil litigation since the panel was created by Congress more than 40 years ago. In that time, the panel has considered more than 300,000 cases and millions of claims in litigation stemming from airplane crashes, hotel fires, securities fraud, and harm allegedly caused by asbestos and prescription drugs.”
A View from the Panel: Part of the Solution by John G. Heyburn II: “The Article traces the development of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation and its role in the management of complex litigation before providing an overview of its current practices and future direction. Its purpose is to provide the reader with some insight into the Panels operations, to suggest how those operations have generally benefitted litigants in complex multidistrict cases, and to confirm the Panels intention to continue addressing the challenges that multidistrict litigation poses. In doing so, the Article provides comprehensive statistics that dispel a number of myths about multidistrict litigation and confronts concerns expressed by practitioners and academics about such varied topics as the time allotted to oral argument, the factors involved in selecting the transferee court, and the standards for transferring and remanding cases. The Article concludes with a look toward the role the Panel hopes to play in the future of complex litigation.”
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