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Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation - Judicial Business 2014

The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation acted on 53,103 civil actions pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407 during 2014.

The Panel transferred 6,120 cases that had been pending in 90 district courts to 46 transferee districts for inclusion in coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings with 46,983 actions initiated in the transferee districts. The Panel did not order transfer in 46 newly docketed sets of litigation involving 323 actions.

Thirteen antitrust cases constituted one-fourth of the new litigation. Six product liability cases and six sales practices cases together accounted for another quarter of the newly centralized dockets. Other notable dockets included six consumer privacy cases, four of them alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and two alleging customer data security breaches.

Since its creation in 1968, the Panel has centralized 515,594 civil actions for pretrial proceedings. By the end of 2014, a total of 13,911 actions had been remanded for trial, 398 actions had been reassigned within the transferee districts, 373,581 actions had been terminated in the transferee courts, and 127,704 actions were pending throughout 58 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.

All statistical information on multidistrict litigation traffic in the federal courts is maintained by the clerk’s office of the Panel. Information on specific cases or districts may be obtained from that office.