Judicial Panel On Multidistrict Litigation

Seven federal judges began grappling Thursday with the tough question of whether consolidation of the nation's 31,000 asbestos cases would relieve overwhelmed courts or cause more expense and delay. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, which acts to consolidate large and complex federal cases, heard about 50 lawyers argue how the cases should be handled. The standing-room-only hearing was held in Manhattan federal court.

A judicial panel on Monday ordered that 26,639 federal lawsuits across the country alleging injury or death from asbestos be shifted to U.S. District Court in Philadelphia for pretrial proceedings. That court is the one "either expressly favored or not objected to" by the most parties in the suits, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said. The proceedings will be supervised by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner.

A judicial panel on Monday ordered that 26,639 federal lawsuits across the country alleging injury or death from asbestos be shifted to U.S. District Court in Philadelphia for pretrial proceedings. That court is the one "either expressly favored or not objected to" by the most parties in the suits, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said. The proceedings will be supervised by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner.

Seven federal judges began grappling Thursday with the tough question of whether consolidation of the nation's 31,000 asbestos cases would relieve overwhelmed courts or cause more expense and delay. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, which acts to consolidate large and complex federal cases, heard about 50 lawyers argue how the cases should be handled. The standing-room-only hearing was held in Manhattan federal court.

Global Crossing Ltd. shareholders and workers seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages over the fiber-optic network owner's collapse will press their claims in federal court in New York, a panel of judges ruled. Combining the 57 lawsuits filed by Global Crossing employees and investors before U.S. District Gerard E. Lynch in Manhattan will aid pretrial information exchanges, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said.

All lawsuits filed against Union Carbide Corp. in the chemical leak disaster in Bhopal, India--totaling billions of dollars in damages--have been consolidated in federal court in New York, a judicial panel announced today. The Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation said it assigned the case to U.S. District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan.

A Chicago law firm said it has filed the first complaint seeking worldwide class-action status to combine lawsuits against Firestone and Ford Motor Co. for injuries, deaths and economic loss allegedly resulting from tire blowouts and tread loss. Chicago law firm Kenneth B.

More than 150 lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. over alleged sudden-acceleration problems and related injuries have been consolidated before a single federal judge in Santa Ana, about 30 miles from the automaker's U.S. headquarters in Torrance. That means that while federal investigations into the causes of the unintended speeding continue in Washington, Southern California now will be the focal point for assessing any personal damages. In a ruling handed down Friday, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation allowed more than 100 suits seeking class-action status, as well as at least 50 personal injury cases, to be adjudicated in a single federal courtroom.

Shareholders' lawsuits claiming that Putnam Investments, Janus Capital Group Inc. and five other companies were involved in improper mutual fund trading have been consolidated and assigned to U.S. District Court in Baltimore. The federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in Washington, which organizes complex federal cases, combined the shareholders' cases against six mutual fund managers and hedge fund Canary Capital Partners, its website said.

For too long they have been the recipients of little more than sanctimonious hand-wringing. But the tens of thousands of victims of asbestos exposure finally have reason to hope that the end of their long litigation nightmare is in sight. Last week a panel of federal judges ordered consolidation of more than 26,000 federal personal injury cases, transferring them to a single court for negotiation and, perhaps, resolution.

The 10 federal lawsuits filed by bondholders who lost their investments in the collapse of Lincoln Savings & Loan's parent firm are being transferred from U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to Phoenix. A court order by a U.S. administrative panel consolidates the cases before Judge Richard M. Bilby, who has been overseeing the government's civil racketeering case against former Lincoln operators as well as the bankruptcy of the S&L's former parent, Phoenix-based American Continental Corp.

Like city boosters competing to host the Olympics, hundreds of lawyers representing gulf oil spill victims converged on this mountain town Thursday, promoting their Southern cities as the best equipped and the most convenient venue to handle about 300 lawsuits tied to the disaster. Their arguments before seven federal judges — who will make the decision on where the lawsuits will be heard and who will preside over them — is the critical first step in what is expected to be a long and complicated legal battle over damages caused by the nation's worst oil spill.