§ 90.009.Joinder of Claimants

One sentence ending mass consolidated trials in these cases.

Unless all parties agree otherwise, claims relating to more than one exposed person may not be joined for a single trial.

The practice this ends was consolidated trials of dozens or hundreds of claimants at once. Each had a different work history, a different exposure, a different smoking history, and a different medical condition — and a jury was asked to resolve them together.

Consolidation drove settlement value more than any single case did. A defendant facing one trial for two hundred claimants faced aggregate exposure that made trying any of them irrational, whatever the merits of the individual claims.

The unanimity requirement is strict. All parties must agree, so a single defendant can insist on separate trials.

Note the limit: joinder "for a single trial." Cases may still be consolidated for pretrial purposes, which is precisely what the MDL pretrial court does. Discovery, motions, and case management proceed collectively; the trial does not.

The rulemaking section then permits the supreme court to amend the rules on joinder in these actions if the rules are consistent with this section, so the prohibition cannot be relaxed by rule.