Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation — Judicial Business 2020
The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation acted on 231,495 civil actions pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407 during 2020.
The Panel transferred 4,210 cases that were pending in 90 district courts to 31 transferee districts for inclusion in coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings with 227,285 actions initiated in the transferee districts. The Panel did not order transfer for 111 actions that were the subjects of 20 motions for centralization.
The Panel centralized 54 new multidistrict litigation (MDL) dockets. Twenty-one dockets were split among six products liability dockets, five “miscellaneous” litigation dockets (one of them involving customer data security breaches), four antitrust dockets, three intellectual property dockets, one marketing and sales practices docket, one securities docket, and one employment practices docket.
Since its creation in 1968, the Panel has centralized 953,641 civil actions for pretrial proceedings. By the end of fiscal year 2020, a total of 17,104 actions had been remanded for trial, 609,333 actions had been terminated in the transferee courts, and 327,204 actions were pending throughout 44 transferee district courts.
Tables S-19 and S-20 provide statistics on the cases transferred since the Panel was created, presenting data on the flow of cases into and out of the districts during the current fiscal year and cumulative since 1968.