And Now A Word From The Panel: Fewer MDLs, More Actions

Welcome as we enter the ninth year 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 at venues around the country.

As we begin 2021, the panel continues its remote hearing procedures, and for the first time in a number of years, it will not be holding its January hearing in the state of Florida. Nevertheless, the Super Bowl is scheduled to return to the Sunshine State in early February — somewhat ironically, at the situs of the panel's last in-person hearing session, in Tampa in January 2020.

For its January hearing session, the panel has a lighter docket than usual, with only four new MDL petitions to begin the year.