Members of the plaintiff’s bar have raised concerns regarding a proposed rule meant to govern the early steps in multidistrict litigations (MDLs). Critiques point to the potential for the same attorneys to be continually awarded leadership positions in MDL case handling.
The presiding committee considering these issues is the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. It’s known for proposing changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The ongoing consideration concerns the addition of a rule around the initial case management conferences for MDLs, which currently do not exist.
This newly proposed rule contains a clause stating that the judge overseeing the MDL can appoint a coordinating counsel to manage the case logistics. Lawyers who frequently find themselves involved in such cases worry this provision could fail to disrupt existing patterns: the same attorneys could keep getting asked to take the role of coordinating counsel.
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