By Steve Levine · Updated June 12, 2026 · 6 min read
Quick Answer
The JPML — the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation — is a special panel of seven federal judges, created under 28 U.S.C. § 1407, that decides when many similar federal lawsuits should be grouped together in one court. When the panel finds that cases filed in different districts share common factual questions, it transfers them to a single federal judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings, creating an MDL. Think of the JPML as the federal traffic controller for big groups of similar lawsuits.
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The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is a special federal court panel that decides whether many similar federal lawsuits should be handled together. Congress created it in 1968 under 28 U.S.C. § 1407, and its job is narrow: look at cases filed in different federal districts, decide whether they involve common questions of fact, and — if centralizing them would serve convenience and efficiency — send them all to one federal judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings. The result of that decision is a multidistrict litigation (MDL).
A concrete example: someone sues a drug maker in New York. Someone else sues the same company in California. Another person sues in Texas. All three cases claim the same drug caused the same type of injury. Instead of three courts separately fighting over the same discovery, documents, expert witnesses, and early motions, the JPML can order the related cases sent to one federal court for coordinated pretrial work. The panel itself doesn't decide who wins — it only decides whether and where to group the cases. Its decisions and pending-case statistics are published on the panel's official site, jpml.uscourts.gov.
When the JPML centralizes litigation, the individual cases are transferred from the federal courts where they were originally filed — called the transferor districts — into the one court the panel chose, called the transferee district. The stated purpose is to avoid duplicate discovery, prevent inconsistent pretrial rulings, and conserve the resources of the parties, witnesses, and courts.
Each transferred case is still its own lawsuit, with its own plaintiff and its own claims. Only the pretrial phase is shared. If a case doesn't settle inside the MDL, it can be remanded — sent back to its original district — for trial.
When a JPML report or docket list describes an MDL as active with transferred cases, it means three things: the MDL still exists, cases have already been centralized by the panel, and there are still pending lawsuits inside that MDL.
Just as important is what it does not mean. It does not mean the litigation is new. It does not mean there is a settlement. And it does not mean every related lawsuit in the country is listed — only the federal cases that were actually centralized into that docket. An MDL can stay "active" for years while discovery, bellwether trials, and settlement talks play out.
A simple way to keep the terms straight:
- JPML — the federal traffic controller for big groups of similar lawsuits.
- MDL — the grouped-lawsuit system the JPML's decision creates.
- Transferred — individual cases were moved from many courts into one court for pretrial coordination.
- Active — the MDL still has pending cases.
For a full walkthrough of what happens after centralization — leadership appointments, coordinated discovery, bellwether trials, and global settlements — see our MDL glossary guide. Many of the mass tort cases we cover in our mass tort lawsuits section are JPML-centralized MDLs.
JPML statistics are useful for spotting large federal mass torts, but they miss a lot. They do not show ordinary class actions (a single lawsuit covering a class doesn't need centralization), state-court mass torts (the JPML only has authority over federal cases), individual federal cases that were never centralized, or settlements being administered outside the JPML process. So a quiet JPML docket doesn't mean nothing is happening — it just means nothing is happening inside the federal MDL system.
What does JPML stand for?
JPML stands for the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, a panel of seven federal judges created under 28 U.S.C. § 1407. It decides whether federal lawsuits filed in different districts involve common factual questions and should be sent to one federal judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings, known as multidistrict litigation or an MDL.
What does it mean when a case is transferred by the JPML?
Transferred means an individual lawsuit was moved out of the federal district where it was filed (the transferor district) and into the single court the JPML chose to run the MDL (the transferee district). The case keeps its own plaintiff and its own claims; only the pretrial work — discovery, expert evidence, and early motions — is handled centrally. Cases that do not settle can be remanded back to their original courts for trial.
What does an active transferred MDL mean?
It means the JPML has already centralized the related cases into one MDL docket and that docket still has pending lawsuits. It does not mean the litigation is new, that a settlement exists, or that every related lawsuit in the country is included — only that the MDL exists and cases inside it are still open.
Is the JPML the same thing as an MDL?
No. The JPML is the panel of judges that decides whether to create an MDL and which court gets it. The MDL is the resulting grouped proceeding — the docket where the transferred cases are coordinated for pretrial work. The JPML makes the traffic-control decision; the transferee judge runs the MDL day to day.
Do JPML statistics show every big lawsuit in the country?
No. JPML reports only cover federal cases that were centralized into MDLs. They miss ordinary class actions, state-court mass torts, individual federal cases that were never centralized, and settlements administered outside the JPML process.