And Now A Word From The Panel: 5 Key MDL Factors

Welcome to the latest installment of And Now a Word From the Panel, a column that "rides the circuit" with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation as it meets on a bimonthly basis.

After forgoing in-person meetings for more than two years in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the panel is scheduled to hold its fourth consecutive in-person oral argument. For the Sept. 29 hearing session, the panel begins its trek back east, holding that session in the Show-Me State — specifically, in St. Louis, Missouri — after its July hearing session out west in Seattle, Washington.

At the September hearing, the panel is scheduled to hear five new MDL petitions. But at the July hearing session, the panel considered seven new MDL petitions — including the petition addressed in our last column, arising from an alleged data breach of a timekeeping and payroll system.