A federal judiciary panel last year rejected a record number of requests to coordinate multidistrict litigation, adding a new level of scrutiny for attorneys who petition to get large numbers of cases across the country combined under the pretrial procedure.
In 2015, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued 36 denial orders—about 44 percent of the 82 requests made that year. It issued 33 approvals. That’s the first time in the past decade that the panel has denied more requests than approved them.
