In Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss, the Supreme Court unanimously held that an MDL judge has no authority to keep transferred cases for trial. After pretrial ends, cases must be remanded. Bellwether trials in the MDL courtroom happen by consent — parties waive their Lexecon rights.
In practice fewer than 3% of cases are ever remanded, so the right is more leverage than destination. Direct-filed cases may have waived it — one of several reasons filing posture matters.
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