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Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation - Judicial Business 2015

The Panel transferred 8,728 cases that had been pending in 91 district courts to 39 transferee districts for inclusion in coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings with 28,939 actions initiated in the transferee districts. The Panel did not order transfer for 307 actions that were the subjects of 47 motions for centralization, although 3 of those motions involved 27 newly docketed sets of litigation focusing on herbal supplements.

The Panel centralized 38 new multidistrict litigation (MDL) dockets. Ten product liability cases accounted for more than a quarter of the new dockets. Other notable dockets included six consumer privacy litigation cases, five of them alleging customer data security breaches and one alleging a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Since its creation in 1968, the Panel has centralized 553,249 civil actions for pretrial proceedings. By the end of 2015, a total of 15,844 actions had been remanded for trial, 398 actions had been reassigned within the transferee districts, 404,219 actions had been terminated in the transferee courts, and 132,788 actions were pending throughout 57 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 MDL cases 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.