THE NEW YORK State courts have adopted rules that mirror the federal multidistrict system for allowing mass tort cases to be handled for pretrial purposes by a single judge.
Under New York’s new rule, which has been appearing in the Law Journal’s Court Notes section (page 31 in today’s issue), a four-judge panel is being established to decide which lawsuits should be assigned to one or perhaps several judges for pretrial purposes because they present common facts and parties, as is often the case in mass torts.
