The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (known informally as the MDL Panel) has issued its decision to consolidate the hundreds of lawsuits filed in the wake of the largest oil disaster in U.S. history - the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Finding that the Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans) is best suited to handle the lawsuits, the MDL Panel determined that the matters would be heard before U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier. In a separate order, the MDL Panel also ordered that all civil securities litigation would be heard by U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison of the Southern District of Texas (Houston).

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