JPML Orders Parties with Pending Business Interruption COVID-19 Claims to File Briefing on Proposed Insurer-Specific MDL Dockets

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has ordered parties involved with COVID-19 business interruption lawsuits against Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, Cincinnati Insurance Co., Hartford, and Society Insurance to show cause why the actions should not be transferred to a single district for coordinated pretrial proceedings as insurer-specific MDL dockets.

The Aug. 12 separate orders were in direct response to its order denying centralization in MDL No. 2942, In Re: COVID-19 Business Interruption Protection Insurance Litigation, in which the JPML said that it required a “better understanding of the factual commonalities and differences among the actions.”