Federal Multidistrict Litigation in a Nutshell
Files
Description
This text is for students taking courses in complex litigation, advanced civil procedure, or mass torts. It is also designed as a concise book for members of the bench and bar who are handling multidistrict litigation cases. Its focus is on all aspects of federal multidistrict litigation (MDL), including statistics on MDL cases; comparisons with other aggregation devices (such as class actions); the decision of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (the Panel) to centralize cases (including the standards for centralization and the selection of the MDL district court and judge); appellate review of Panel decisions; tag-along cases; the role of the MDL transferee judge (including case management, designating lead lawyers and committees, deciding motions, conducting bellwether trials, overseeing settlements, and awarding attorneys' fees); choice-of-law issues in MDLs; personal jurisdiction and venue issues; remand of transferred cases; federal/state coordination (including state MDL statutes); and proposals for reform of MDL practice. The second edition contains substantial updates, including updated statistics, inclusion of very recent MDLs, a new chapter on bankruptcy issues, and a discussion of the new Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16.1.
ISBN
9798895456002
Publication Date
2026
Document Type
Book
Publisher
West Academic
Edition
2nd Edition
City
Eagan, MN
Keywords
Multidistrict litigation, federal litigation, complex litigation, nutshell series, pre-trial procedure, jurisdiction, United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict litigation, advanced civil procedure, mass torts, class actions
Disciplines
Civil Procedure | Jurisdiction | Law | Litigation | Torts
Recommended Citation
Robert H. Klonoff, Federal Multidistrict Litigation in a Nutshell (2nd Edition 2026).
https://lawcommons.lclark.edu/faculty_books/52