Civil procedure
Multidistrict Litigation
Multidistrict litigation, or MDL, is the process of consolidating similar federal cases from many districts before one judge for pretrial proceedings.
A panel of judges decides whether to centralize cases and where to send them. Mass torts, defective products, data breaches, and pharmaceutical cases end up here because thousands of separate lawsuits would otherwise duplicate the same discovery in fifty courthouses.
Consolidation is for pretrial only. In theory cases return to their home districts for trial, though in practice most resolve through a global settlement or through bellwether trials that set the value of the rest.
For anyone searching records, the MDL structure explains missing dockets. An individual case may show only a transfer order and then nothing, because all the activity is happening on the master MDL docket in another district.
How it appears on a docket
CONDITIONAL TRANSFER ORDER: this action is transferred to MDL No. 3081, In re: Cardiac Device Products Liability Litigation, in the Northern District of Ohio.
Governing rule
28 U.S.C. Sec. 1407
Related terms
- Class Action — A class action is a lawsuit where a few named plaintiffs sue on behalf of a much larger group with the same injury.
- Remand — Remand is sending a case back to the court it came from, either from federal court to state court or from an appellate court to the trial court.
More on civil procedure
See this term in a real case
Search federal court records and read the filings where multidistrict litigation actually shows up. New to federal dockets? Start with how to find a federal case.