A. At the discretion of the Supreme Court, the Court may create a Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The panel may consist of five (5) active judges selected by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The judges may be either judges of the district court or appellate judges. The members of the panel shall serve at the pleasure of the Chief Justice.
B. If there exist a sufficient number of cases to justify consolidation and if the cases are at a comparable stage in the litigation, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation may transfer civil actions involving one or more common questions of fact pending in the same or different district courts to any district court for consolidated or coordinated proceedings, giving due weight, consideration and preference to the district court wherein the first civil action was filed.
C. If the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation finds that the civil actions are not at comparable stages in the litigation, the Panel may stay one or more of the actions pending resolution of the common questions of fact in one of the other actions, giving due weight, consideration and preference to the first civil action filed and the action which has reached the furthest stage of litigation.
D. Nothing in this section shall expand the existing law as to the binding effect of a court’s rulings in one of the actions to the other actions prior to the date of consolidation or as to any case that is stayed by the Panel.
E. A transfer or stay may be made by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation if the panel determines that the transfer or stay shall:
1. Be for the convenience of the parties and witnesses; and
2. Promote the just and efficient conduct of actions giving due weight and consideration to binding or nonbinding effects of prior and future court rulings on the parties to the cases to be consolidated or stayed.
F. A transfer or stay may be for the remainder of an action or for any particular stage of an action.
G. A judge who is qualified and authorized by law to preside in the court to which an action is transferred pursuant to this section may preside over the transferred action as if the transferred action were originally filed in that court.
H. The Supreme Court shall promulgate rules for the implementation of this section.
Added by Laws 2004, c. 368, § 15, eff. Nov. 1, 2004.
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