Sessions Information

  • January 6, 2017
    10:30 am - 12:15 pm
    Session Type: Section Call for Papers
    Session Capacity: 99
    Hotel: Hilton San Francisco Union Square
    Room: Golden Gate 7
    Floor: Lobby Level


    MDLs comprise an increasingly significant portion of the federal docket, and account for much of the growth in the civil side of the docket in the last few years. Trial court judges to whom the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transfers cases, operating with little guidance from the MDL statute or the federal rules, have improvised ways to appoint counsel to leadership positions; control pleading, motion practice and discovery; and resolve mass torts via trial or aggregate settlements in a system expressly designed for pretrial purposes only. Though creative, their solutions raise a number of concerns regarding litigant autonomy, agency costs, and the role of federal court judges in litigation. This program explores the MDL phenomenon and the problems it poses for our civil litigation system.

     
    Papers from the program will be published in The Review of Litigation.

    Business meeting at program conclusion.

     

Session Speakers
Organization: Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
Speaker

Organization: University of Connecticut School of Law
Speaker

Organization: The University of Texas School of Law
Speaker

Organization: University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
Moderator

Organization: United States District Court for the Northern District of California
Speaker

Organization: King & Spalding
Speaker

Session Fees
  • [6300] Litigation, Co-Sponsored by Torts and Compensation Systems: $0.00