Multidistrict litigation is a legal procedure in United States federal courts in which lawsuits involving similar issues (common issues of fact) are consolidated in one court (called the MDL court) for the purpose of convenience and efficiency in pretrial matters, such as discovery. These lawsuits are generally returned to their original federal district courts for trial. Claims that are often the subject of multidistrict litigation are product liability claims against pharmaceutical companies, securities fraud cases, and airplane crashes.

Multidistrict litigation (MDL) is a federal legal procedure that allows for the consolidation of multiple lawsuits that share common factual issues to be transferred to a single federal district court. This process is designed to make pretrial proceedings, including discovery, more efficient and to reduce the burden on the court system. In Wyoming, as in other states, cases that could be part of an MDL are initially filed in their respective federal district courts. If the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) determines that the cases have enough in common, they can be transferred to one federal district court for the pretrial phase. After the pretrial matters are resolved, the cases are typically sent back to their original courts for trial. MDLs are often used in cases involving product liability, such as those against pharmaceutical companies, as well as in securities fraud and major accident cases, like airplane crashes.