Tag Archives: Symposium 2014

Schedule — The Rest of the Story: Resolving the Cases Remanded by the MDL

Posted on by

LSU Law 2014 Complex Litigation Symposium
The Rest of the Story: Resolving the Cases Remanded by the MDL

7:45-8:25

Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:25-8:30

Opening Remarks

8:30-9:30

Panel 1: Collaboration of Judges and Attorneys in MDL Case Management

The panel will discuss how attorneys and judges can successfully collaborate to use disaggregation as a tool of effective case management.

9:40-10:40

Panel 2: Effectively Planning for Disaggregated Discovery

The panel will discuss when discovery issues should be disaggregated for separate resolution, and the costs, benefits, and challenges of reserving issues for separate discovery.

10:50-11:50

Panel 3: Integrating Aggregated and Disaggregated Discovery Issues

The panel will discuss various kinds of discovery (e.g., E-Discovery, expert discovery, and specific discovery), and the strategic and case management challenges each method presents in the context of MDLs, including both aggregated and disaggregated discovery issues.

12:10-1:10

(Lunch Presentation) Panel 4: The Real Story: FJC Report on What the Empirical Data on MDL Remands Shows

Federal Judicial Center researchers will present findings from their research on multidistrict litigation. The analysis will focus on two sets of cases: (1) cases that are considered for transfer but not transferred, and (2) cases that are transferred and that are subsequently remanded back to the transferor court. Understanding these cases, and the cases that are resolved in the transferee court, may provide some insight into the effects of aggregation on various kinds of cases.

1:20-2:20

Panel 5: When Remand is Appropriate

The panel will discuss at what stages plaintiffs, defendants, and judges perceive optimal windows to disaggregate various kinds of issues, and the factors that influence the decision and timing.

2:30-3:30

Panel 6: How Remand Should Be Effectuated

The panel will discuss how judges and attorneys work together to effectuate remand of MDL cases, including methods for ensuring smooth transitioning of work product, case management, and expertise to state and federal judges upon remand.

3:30-3:45

Closing Remarks

Schedule subject to change.

The Rest of the Story: Resolving the Cases Remanded by the MDL

Posted on by

The Louisiana Law Review‘s 2014 symposium, entitled The Rest of the Story: Resolving the Cases Remanded by the MDL, will be held on Friday, March 7, 2014, beginning at 8:25 a.m. in the McKernan Auditorium at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center. Admission is free. One hour of Louisiana CLE credit will be available for each of the six panels held throughout the day. If you have any questions, please contact Dani Borel or Martha Thibaut.

After a long period of increasing aggregation in federal multidistrict litigation, aggregation has come under increasing criticism. Some scholars and judges have observed increasing pressure to disaggregate cases and parties. When should cases be treated separately? When should parties within the same case litigate independently? How does well-targeted disaggregation lead to better decision-making? What are the problems associated with disaggregation for courts and parties? The Louisiana Law Review is proud to bring together leading federal judges, attorneys, and scholars to explore these questions.

Presenters include the following: Judge Lee Rosenthal, Judge Eldon Fallon, Professor Elizabeth Burch, Professor Lonny Hoffman, Professor Frances McGovern, Mark Lanier, Richard Arsenault, Alistair Dawson, Emery G. Lee III, Margaret S. Williams, Catherine R. Borden. Additional panelists will be announced.