We have offered multiple (83 posts and counting)on Multi-District Litigation. Some of those posts might seem at odds with each other. But as Emerson said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds." As Whitman said, "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am vast; I contain multitudes." And Charles Barkley, after all, once claimed he had been misquoted in his autobiography. The problem with taking any sort of position on MDL procedure is that you never know which side of the issue you might occupy.

The theory behind Multi-District Litigation is that consolidation of pretrial proceedings should produce efficiency. Who's against efficiency? You'd be surprised. (Or maybe you wouldn’t.) If an MDL really resulted in streamlined litigation that is less expensive, without any alteration in substantive rights and outcomes, one would be hard-pressed to squawk. But MDLs can change things in substantive ways. First, creating an MDL inevitably inspires plaintiff lawyers to file boatloads of iffy cases, with the idea of docking them in the MDL for the duration and eventually racking up additional settlements and attorney fees. Second, an MDL puts you in front of a different judge -- the transferee judge. That, friends, can make all the difference in the world. In all likelihood, one side will be much happier with the transferee judge, and the other side will pine for remand just to get away from the transferee judge.