Columbia, SC personal injury attorney Graham Newman talks about the difference between multidistrict litigation and class action litigation. Multi-district litigation and class action litigation are similar yet distinct, often leading to confusion even among legal professionals. A class action involves a single case where one individual represents the interests of a larger group, which can include hundreds or even thousands of members.

Conversely, multi-district litigation consists of multiple individual cases that are consolidated to address common questions of fact or law. For instance, if an insurance company adjusts a policy uniformly for all insured parties, those affected could be represented collectively by one individual in a class action.

However, in personal injury cases, particularly those questioning whether a specific product causes harm—such as Roundup in relation to non-Hodgkin lymphoma—class actions are generally unsuitable. Each plaintiff must demonstrate that their cancer resulted from exposure to Roundup, necessitating specific considerations that differ from case to case. As a result, one individual cannot effectively represent the interests of all plaintiffs in a single action.

Despite this, there are common questions relevant to each individual case, such as whether Roundup can cause cancer. In such instances, courts may establish multi-district litigation to resolve these shared questions before returning the cases to their respective jurisdictions for trial.