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ARTICLE · 29 SEPTEMBER 2016

And Now A Word From The Panel: 3 Alternatives To MDLs

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Welcome to the latest installment of "And Now A Word From The Panel," a bimonthly column which "rides the circuit" with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation as it meets at venues around the country.

United StatesConsumer Protection
Alan Rothman
Alan Rothman
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Welcome to the latest installment of "And Now A Word From The Panel," a bimonthly column which "rides the circuit" with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation as it meets at venues around the country.

As we enter the fall season, the panel moves from one Washington to another, heading back east to the nation's capital for its Sept. 29 hearing session following its July session in Seattle.

At its Seattle session, the panel created three new MDLs and denied four MDL petitions. This leaves the panel's batting average at .429 for the year — creating 15 new MDL proceedings and denying 20 MDL petitions. In addition, the overall number of pending MDL proceedings has dwindled by another 5 percent, to 248 (down from 262 only two months ago), with the panel terminating a total of 41 existing MDLs in the first eight and a half months of the year.1

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