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b'On November 10, 2020, The Federalist Society\'s Litigation Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National Lawyers Convention. The topic of the panel was "Are MDL Judges Too Powerful?".
Nearly half of all federal civil cases are now consolidated in a few handfuls of so-called MDLs (multi-district litigations). Each MDL is overseen by a single federal district judge even though it can comprise tens of thousands of individual cases and involve dozens of different defendants. Some MDLs are so big they can threaten entire industries, including perhaps the biggest of them all, the Opioid MDL pending in the Northern District of Ohio. In theory the individual cases in an MDL can return to their original courts once all pretrial proceedings are completed, but in reality the litigants almost always feel compelled to settle before that happens. In light of the bar on interlocutory appeals, this means that the single MDL judge has vast authority to decide what happens to all these cases, from how much discovery is exchanged, to whether motions to dismiss and summary judgment are granted, to whether experts should be disqualified, to whether a class action should be certified. When it comes to MDLs, have we placed too much power in the hands of one judge? Are more options needed? Even more dramatic structural reforms?
Featuring:

Prof. Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Fuller E. Callaway Chair of Law, University of Georgia School of Law
Prof. Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Mr. Christopher A. Seeger, Partner, Seeger Weiss LLP
Moderator: Hon. Britt C. Grant, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

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As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speakers.'