Trask Publishes Law Review Article on Legitimizing MDLs

Shook Of Counsel Andrew Trask has authored "Ten Principles for Legitimizing MDLs," a law review article published in the American Journal of Trial Advocacy, focusing on how multidistrict litigation could be improved through various reforms and how those reforms could be accomplished in the absence of legislation or rulemaking. The article proposes ten principles that judges (and the litigators who argue before them) can use to administer MDLs in ways that induce confidence from litigants and the public. Furnishing each principle with examples from caselaw and current scholarship, Trask lists the ten principles as:

1. MDLs have real-world effects.
2. Junk claims are bad for MDLs.
3. Dispositive motions can quickly resolve many common issues.
4. Focusing on science keeps the facts straight.
5. Certifying issues for interlocutory appeal creates needed certainty.
6. MDL discovery should be a two-way street.
7. Sanctions can help keep a case moving.
8. Bellwether trials only work if they are representative.
9. Good settlements require good information. 
10. Remand is not failure.