MDL statistics for class action firms: what the JPML's October 2026 numbers show

As of October 1, 2026, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) listed 162 pending MDLs holding 204,977 actions, and products liability dockets held 94% of those actions. Antitrust, data breach and privacy, sales practices and securities dockets were 44% of the MDLs but held under 1.5% of the actions, largely because a putative class action counts as one action.

How many MDLs are pending right now?

The JPML's October 1, 2026 report lists 162 MDL dockets in 50 transferee districts, before 141 transferee judges, with 204,977 actions pending. A year earlier, the October 1, 2025 report listed 158 dockets and 197,115 actions, so pending actions rose about 4% in 12 months.

Volume is concentrated. In re Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder (MDL 2738) alone holds 69,340 actions, about 34% of the total. The three largest dockets (talc, Bard hernia mesh and AFFF) hold about 53%. At the other end, 112 of the 162 dockets have 100 or fewer pending actions, and the 21 dockets with 1,000 or more hold 94.58% of all actions, per the report's own size bands.

The biggest 12-month changes were mass torts. Depo-Provera (MDL 3140) grew from 1,222 to 6,412 actions, and Uber passenger sexual assault (MDL 3084) from 2,721 to 4,916. Taxotere (MDL 2740) fell from 3,412 to 20, and Roundup (MDL 2741) from 4,472 to 1,104.

What do the MDL statistics show by case type?

The Panel assigns every docket a type in its Pending MDLs by Docket Type report. We matched each docket's type to its action count in the Actions Pending report for the same date.

Sources: JPML Pending MDL Dockets by Actions Pending and by Docket Type, both as of October 1, 2026. The type report lists 171 dockets; nine have no transferee judge or transfer date yet, so we used the 162 that appear in both reports. Shares computed by ClassAct and may not sum to 100% because of rounding.

"Miscellaneous" is mostly tort volume: the Uber, Lyft and Roblox sexual assault dockets, the two opioid dockets and the NCAA and NFL concussion dockets hold 99% of its 9,306 actions, though it also holds small consumer dockets such as StubHub Refund and Capital One 360 Savings. Some dockets built around consumer economic-loss claims are typed Products Liability, such as Kia Hyundai vehicle theft (MDL 3052) and Volkswagen "Clean Diesel" (MDL 2672). So the type split is a close guide, not an exact count of class cases.

Why do action counts understate class action MDLs?

The report counts civil actions. A putative class action is one action, whatever the size of the proposed class. In the big product dockets, most plaintiffs file their own cases, so the count roughly tracks filed claimants, though it still misses multi-plaintiff complaints, unfiled claims held under tolling agreements and parallel state-court cases.

A worked example. The Change Healthcare data breach MDL (MDL 3108, D. Minn.) had 153 pending actions on October 1, 2026, about 0.07% of all MDL actions and 40th of 162 dockets by size. The HHS Office for Civil Rights reports that on July 31, 2025, Change Healthcare notified it that "approximately 192.7 million individuals have been impacted." By action count, the MDL sits just behind the Future Motion products liability MDL (161 actions).

How many data breach MDLs are pending?

Twenty-one, under the Panel's "Data Breach and Consumer Privacy" type, as of October 1, 2026. The JPML's calendar year 2025 statistics counted 20 at the end of 2025; since then two have closed, two were transferred, and one older docket (MDL 3074) is back on the list. Sixteen of the 21 have "Data Security Breach" in their titles; the rest involve privacy claims such as driving data tracking, wiretapping and user profiles. Together they hold 1,106 actions, a median of 28 per docket.

Sources: JPML Pending MDL Dockets by Docket Type (type and transfer date) and by Actions Pending, both as of October 1, 2026. Titles shortened by ClassAct.

Three of the 21 were transferred in the past 12 months: Trans Union (December 16, 2025), Cognizant and TriZetto (June 5, 2026) and Health Gorilla (August 7, 2026). The two oldest still pending date to 2018 and 2019.

What kinds of MDLs did the Panel create in the past year?

Twenty-three dockets on the October 1, 2026 list were transferred between October 1, 2025 and October 1, 2026: 8 antitrust, 5 products liability, 3 data breach and privacy, 2 miscellaneous, 2 intellectual property, and 1 each of securities, sales practices and air disaster.

That makes 13 of the 23 antitrust, data breach and privacy, sales practices or securities dockets, the case types most often brought as class actions. The new antitrust dockets include shell eggs, fertilizer, fire apparatus and one titled In re Class Action Settlement Administration Litigation (MDL 3162, D.D.C.).

One limit: this counts dockets still pending on October 1, 2026. The Panel's list of MDLs terminated between January 1 and October 1, 2026 shows 14 closed dockets, none transferred in this window; it doesn't cover closures in late 2025.

Where does the JPML publish these numbers?

The Panel's Pending MDLs page posts reports by district, by MDL number, by docket type and by actions pending, plus a list of recently terminated MDLs. The Panel says that, beginning January 1, 2024, it uploads them on the first business day of each month. The docket type report also gives each docket's filing and transfer dates, which is how we dated the new MDLs above.

What this means for your firm

1. Size class-type MDLs by docket, court and age. Action counts track mass tort volume. For data breach, antitrust or consumer work, the docket list, transferee judge and transfer date are the better guide.
2. Pull the reports monthly. The Panel posts a new set early each month, and each one changes every number here.
3. Expect early questions about the facts behind each claim. In MDLs where the transferee court orders a report for the initial management conference, new Rule 16.1 (in effect since December 1, 2025 under the Supreme Court's April 23, 2025 order) says the report "also must address the parties' initial views on" topics including "how and when the parties will exchange information about the factual bases for their claims and defenses," unless the court orders otherwise (Rule 16.1(b)(3)(B)). Our intake verification checklist covers verifying claimant facts at sign-up.
4. Read the type labels with care. Some consumer dockets sit under Products Liability or Miscellaneous, and some large personal injury dockets, such as Uber, sit under Miscellaneous. Check the docket itself before counting it.