LCJ Comment Seeks Tools to Address Claim Insufficiency in MDLs

LCJ’s new Comment on proposed Rule 16.1 for multidistrict litigation (MDL) urges better language empowering judges and parties with tools for handling—and more importantly, averting—the phenomenon of claim insufficiency and the problems it engenders. The Comment, submitted to the Advisory Committee of Civil Rules, also urges revision of the draft note accompanying new draft Rule 16.1 to correct misidentification of the claim insufficiency problem as a discovery matter.

LCJ urges the Advisory Committee to ensure that new draft Rule 16.1 brings improved structure, uniformity, and predictability to MDLs, while also recommending removal of topics that are not suitable for Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) rulemaking, because they are either unsettled matters of law, or disallowed by or in serious tension with, existing FRCP provisions.

LCJ’s Comment on the newly proposed multidistrict litigation (MDL) rule responds to a request for comments by the Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure. Proposed Rule 16.1 would be the first FRCP provision directly to address the management of MDLs. The proposed rule is tremendously important to the federal courts, as cases in MDLs have grown to over 70% of the federal civil docket.

LCJ will testify on the draft MDL rule at the Advisory Committee’s October 16 hearing in Washington, DC. The hearing is part of a six-month public comment period that runs through February 16, 2024.

Click here to read LCJ’s Comment.