'Trying to Make Some Order Out of All This Chaos': Thoughts on the MDL Process from 3 Federal Judges
"We love trying to get to the end of what seems like an intractable problem and the MDL is the perfect mechanism for that problem-solving talent to come out in members of the federal bench," said U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell, chair of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
March 28, 2024 at 07:30 AM
6 minute read
Federal judges who take on the task of managing multidistrict litigation don't get any special breaks. They don't get to shuffle off the criminal and civil cases already on their busy dockets. Taking on an MDL doesn't get you any additional clerk help to manage the surge of matters from far-flung districts.
But U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell of the Eastern District of Kentucky, the chair of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, says she and her colleagues on the district court bench tend to embrace MDL work because "by nature, we're problem solvers."
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