And Now a Word From The Panel: Checking Out of an MDL

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.

In a change in practice since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the panel initially considered a return to in-person oral arguments in St. Louis, Missouri — at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, home court of a current panel member — for the panel's Sept. 30 hearing session.

But the panel subsequently determined that the "circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic warrant hearing oral argument by videoconference or teleconference."