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Saturday, May 30, 2009
Courts - "Federal judges' group puts big cases on fast track"
Deborah Yetter of the Louisville Courier Journal has a story today on the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. It begins:
The collapse of New York financier Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme created shock waves among investors around the world.A few of those waves rippled into Kentucky this week as lawyers argued about the best place to try some of the scores of lawsuits generated by what's been called one of the world's largest financial swindles.
Seven federal judges who make up the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation met for two days in Louisville to consider the best place to decide several of the nation's biggest and most complicated cases. Topics ranged from elaborate financial fraud of the Madoff-related cases to more mundane cases involving subjects such as cable television, drywall, denture cream and even Victoria's Secret lingerie.
"It's an interesting job -- it's fascinating," said U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II, who as chairman was host for the first Louisville meeting in 20 years of the group of seven judges better known as the MDL Panel.
The main goal of the panel is to consolidate multiple lawsuits from across the country before a single judge, to simplify proceedings and eliminate possible conflicting outcomes from different jurisdictions. The process reduces appeals and speeds resolution of cases.
The panel, which meets every two months, began hearing cases Wednesday. When members adjourned Thursday, judges had heard from about 100 lawyers arguing about whether 30 cases -- some involving hundreds of lawsuits -- should be consolidated in a single city before a single judge.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 30, 2009 01:19 PM
Posted to Courts in general