According to the current Recent Orders page of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation website, transfer motions that it heard in Charleston, South Carolina, on November 20, 2008, ought to go to many different judges in lots of places around the country.

The first order, per the website, bears a date of November 26.  The last one, so far — again according to the website — issued on December 12.

The Panel denied motions to centralize two of the matters it considered at the November 20 session:  In re Cardinal Health, Inc. Contract Litig., MDL No. 1991, and In re U.S.A. Exterminators, Inc. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Litig., MDL No. 2000.

Blawgletter has attended, and argued at, several JPML hearings.  Our principal take-away?  That you can't reliably predict where the Panel will send any MDL matter.

Some say the decision depends on the number of parties that support a particular venue.  Many also posit that the transfer turns on the willingness and reputation of the particular judge who inherits the cases involving the same subject matter, according to local case assignment protocols.

But in addition we all acknowledge that imponderables weigh in the balance as well.  Does a Panel member want personally to get the MDL?  Does a particular district deserve an MDL assignment due to its historical lack of MDL cases?  Or its access to air transportation?  And does the Panel believe that the general reputation of a district as having expertise in a subject matter warrant sending an MDL matter there?  (We think here especially of the S.D.N.Y., which boasts of aplomb with complex commercial disputes.)

We from experience suspect that advocacy counts least.  Lawyers get mere minutes — sometimes one or two — to explain why the venue they favor ought to prevail over all other possible choices.  And not infrequently at least one of the arguing lawyers makes jokes about the process and suggests that things like the presence of fine restaurants in a possible transferee city ought to make a difference.

And yet we applaud the system.  The Panel makes wise decisions in almost all cases.  We just wish it kept its website up to date.

 Our feed wishes the Panel would send all MDL cases to Dallas.  By which we mean the good ones.