The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will hold a hearing today to consider which court (or courts) should handle the numerous federal class actions that have been brought over mutual fund trading practices. The hearing session order states that motions for centralization will be heard for cases involving the following fund groups: Janus, Strong, Bank One, Bank of America, Putnam, and Alliance Capital.
Quote of note: “The panel could assign the cases to federal court in Manhattan or scatter them to federal courts close to the fund companies’ headquarters around the country. Fund firms prefer a home-field approach, while attorneys for fund investors generally favor having cases handled in Manhattan, where courts have extensive experience in securities-fraud cases.”
The 10b-5 Daily 