Article by Eldon E. Fallon, Jeremy T. Grabill, and Robert Pitard Wynne
This Article first provides an overview of the multidistrict litigation process and the history of bellwether trials within it. The Article then recounts in detail specific uses and multiple techniques for implementing bellwether trials under the modern informational approach. After weighing the benefits and drawbacks of using bellwether trials, the Article concludes that procedures that involve considerable attention to the selection of bellwether cases, especially those that include significant attorney participation, are best suited to assist the parties in accurately valuating the thousands of other cases for which trial is often not practical or authorized in the transferee district. The Article sounds a hopeful note for judges and practitioners in multidistrict litigation today by highlighting and deconstructing one of the most innovative and useful techniques for the resolution of complex cases.
About the Author
Eldon E. Fallon. Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. B.A. 1960, Tulane University; J.D. 1962, Tulane University School of Law; LL.M. 1963, Yale Law School.
Jeremy T. Grabill. Associate, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Law Clerk to the Honorable Eldon E. Fallon, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, 2006-2008. B.A. 2003, Cornell University; J.D. 2006, Tulane University School of Law.
Robert Pitard Wynne. Associate, Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. Law Clerk to the Honorable Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2006-2007. Law Clerk to the Honorable Eldon E. Fallon, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, 2005-2006. B.A. 2002, Louisiana State University; J.D. 2005, Loyola University College of Law.
Citation
82 Tul. L. Rev. 2323 (2008)