Newsroom

Judicial Panel Seeks to Streamline
Handling of Complex Cases

The seven federal judges who meet six times a year just down the street from the U.S. Supreme Court building try to streamline adjudication of related complex cases filed in various judicial districts.

The judges comprise the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML), created by federal law (28 U.S.C. Section 1407) in 1968.

Claims against pharmaceutical companies, lawsuits growing out of corporate collapses and air crash disasters, patent disputes, and other types of litigation that frequently produce multiple claims in multiple jurisdictions are grist for the panel's consideration after a party in one or more of the cases seeks centralization.

"Bear in mind that we don't become involved, at all, in the merits of the claims or disputes in multidistrict litigation," said Senior Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges of the Middle District of Florida, who chairs the JPML.

"We really are gatekeepers, deciding whether certain litigation should be let through the gates, so to speak, and, if so, where it should go," Hodges said. Once through that gate, all the related cases are assigned to a "transferee judge" designated by the panel.

"Presently, we have something over 185 district judges all over the country acting as transferee judges, handling multidistrict litigation," Hodges said. "Those judges are performing a service for which they are entitled to substantial commendation because they're not getting an extra penny in pay. It's all volunteer work, done out of a desire to be of service and to have a professional challenge, which this kind of litigation brings."

In fiscal year 2004 (the 12 months ending September 30, 2004), nearly 64,000 cases were pending before those transferee judges.

The JPML's seven members, both district and circuit judges, are appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to a maximum term of seven years.

The panel, which has office space in the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building in Washington, D.C., employs a staff of about 25 persons.