Approved Mass-Torts MDL Best Practices Compendium

The best practices are the first installment in the mass-torts MDL compendium.

They address the following issues:

• Early case-management orders
• Interlocutory appeals
• Central exchange information platform.

A copy of mass-tort MDL best practices drafted under the aegis of the Center’s President when he served as the Director of the Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies is posted at https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/bolch/5.  The Duke Bolch best practices address the following matters:

• Early case-management orders and procedures
• Establishing leadership structure, including plaintiff steering committee
• Methods of selecting lawyers to fill leadership positions
• Qualifications of the leadership counsel
• Leadership counsels’ duty to the court
• Establishing common-benefit fund
• Effective coordination between federal and state courts
• Facilitating settlement
• Enhancing claims-process administration, including reconciliation of liens
• A copy of the George Washington Law School’s Complex Litigation Center’s Guidelines and Best Practices for Judges Appointing Lawyers to Leadership Positions in MDL and Class Action Litigation, which was prepared under the aegis of the Center’s President when he served as the Director of the Duke Law Center for Judicial Studies is posted at Download Document.  The GW best practices include the following guidelines:
  • A judge must make a conscious effort to avoid implicit bias and not overlook qualified applicants based on race, color, gender, sexual orientation, or similar prohibited factors.
  • A judge should consult with counsel about the best administrative structure that will best serve the needs of the case, while ensuring that qualified counsel for leadership are not denied opportunities to perform substantial and meaningful work.
  • A judge has an ongoing duty to monitor the litigation to ensure that counsel are performing their assigned dutues in a manner that is free from invidious discrimination and bias.