Legal Definitions - Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) is a special body of federal judges whose primary role is to improve the efficiency of the federal court system. When many civil lawsuits are filed in different federal district courts across the country, but all share common factual questions, the JPML has the authority to transfer and combine these cases into a single federal court for pretrial proceedings.

This consolidation allows for streamlined discovery (the process of exchanging information and evidence), consistent rulings on preliminary legal issues, and more efficient management of the cases before they potentially return to their original courts for trial, or are resolved through settlement. The JPML was established in 1968, and its members are appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States.

Here are some examples of when the JPML might act:

• Example 1: Defective Medical Device
  Imagine a new type of surgical implant is found to have a critical design flaw, leading to serious health complications for thousands of patients nationwide. As a result, hundreds of individual lawsuits are filed against the manufacturer in federal courts across dozens of states, all alleging similar injuries due to the same defective product. The JPML would likely consolidate all these cases into one federal district court. This allows a single judge to oversee all pretrial matters, such as gathering evidence from the manufacturer, interviewing expert witnesses, and managing settlement discussions, rather than having each individual court conduct these complex and often identical processes separately.

• Example 2: Large-Scale Data Breach
  Consider a major hotel chain that experiences a massive data breach, exposing the personal information of millions of customers across all 50 states. Numerous class-action lawsuits are subsequently filed against the hotel in various federal courts, each claiming similar damages due to the company's alleged negligence in protecting customer data. The JPML would likely centralize these lawsuits into a single court. This ensures that all parties involved can coordinate their efforts in investigating the breach, determining the hotel's liability, and negotiating potential settlements, avoiding the chaos and inefficiency of having multiple courts address the exact same factual and legal questions.

• Example 3: Antitrust Conspiracy
  Suppose several large technology companies are accused of colluding to illegally fix the prices of a popular software component, leading to inflated costs for consumers and other businesses. Lawsuits alleging antitrust violations are filed by various plaintiffs in federal courts located in different regions, such as California, New York, and Texas. The JPML could transfer all these cases to one federal court. This consolidation would allow for a unified approach to the extensive and complex pretrial discovery needed to uncover evidence of the alleged conspiracy, ensuring consistency in rulings and streamlining the path toward a resolution for all affected parties.