According to a November 8, 2017 National Law Journal article, the chairman of the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure “suggested creating a subcommittee to take up a package of proposals to amend multidistrict litigation procedures” at a meeting this week. The article noted that the Advisory Committee had received a number of requests for rulemaking on the subject.
Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ) submitted one of the requests, asking the Advisory Committee to amend selected Rules to adapt their application to cases consolidated for pre-trial proceedings. Washington Legal Foundation wrote to the Advisory Committee in late September, supporting LCJ’s rulemaking request and attaching two recent WLF publications (read them here and here) that positively underscore the unique challenges and pitfalls posed by multidistrict litigation.
The Advisory Committee’s subcommittee will be undertaking challenging and important work, and we commend the Committee for its response to the request made by LCJ and other organizations.