Glossary
The seven-judge federal panel that decides whether to consolidate related civil actions pending in different federal districts into an MDL.
The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, created by 28 U.S.C. § 1407, is composed of seven sitting federal judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States. The JPML decides motions to transfer civil actions involving common questions of fact to a single district for consolidated pretrial proceedings, selects the transferee judge, and may at any time separate or remand any claim, cross-claim, counterclaim, or third-party claim.