From Overload to Order: Rethinking Class Action and MDL Discovery

Class action and multidistrict litigation (MDL) discovery have become some of the most daunting challenges for large organizations. Multi-year timelines, sprawling data, shifting custodians, and parallel cases create a perfect storm of cost, risk, and complexity. For many companies, discovery is no longer a process — it’s a problem.

This two-part series breaks down the chaos and reveals a clearer, smarter path forward.

  • Part 1: Why Class Action and MDL Discovery Become a Nightmare
    Explore the unique challenges — from runaway data volumes and evolving custodians to multi-party coordination and judicial scrutiny — that make class action discovery a costly, high-stakes minefield.
  • Part 2: How Evidence Optix Becomes the Command Center for Class Action and MDL Discovery
    Learn how centralized discovery governance gives legal departments sustained control over scope, cost, and risk as litigation evolves across MDLs, spin-off cases, and long-running class actions.

By following the series, readers will gain practical insight into why traditional approaches fail and how modern tools can turn discovery into a strategic advantage — before costs spiral out of control.

Part 1: Why Class Action and MDL Discovery Become a Nightmare

For Fortune 1000 companies, defending class actions has become staggeringly expensive. In 2024, defense spending hit $4.21 billion, or 12.5% of total litigation — a 12% increase year over year1. Analysts expect the number to reach $4.53 billion for 20252. Much of this burden is driven by one factor: discovery. Managing vast volumes of data while keeping litigation defensible across class actions, MDLs, and related parallel matters has become a complex puzzle few companies can solve without specialized strategies.

The Discovery Dilemma in Class Actions and MDLs

Class actions and MDLs aren’t just bigger, they’re structurally different from ordinary litigation. They stretch across years, involve sprawling data sets, and often spawn spin-off litigation or coordinated proceedings. Traditional approaches to eDiscovery, reliant on traveling spreadsheets, inconsistent processes, and reactive decisions, only magnify the challenge.  This results in ballooning costs, mounting risk, and teams constantly playing catch-up.

Here are the biggest reasons why discovery in class actions spirals out of control:

  1. Sheer Scale of Data and Custodians
    Even in the early stages, discovery in class actions can involve dozens or even hundreds of custodians across departments and geographies. With the average lifespan of a class action of two to four years, with complex cases stretching five to ten , corporate data grows exponentially as the cases drag on. Scope creep, lengthy timelines, and spin-off cases amplify both scope and cost. Even minor systems — like internal chat platforms or spreadsheets — can balloon into massive data burdens.
  1. A Shifting Custodian Landscape
    Discovery is rarely static. Employees retire, switch roles, or leave the company altogether, while new players suddenly become relevant years into the case. Defense teams often find themselves re-collecting or re-reviewing the same data because custodian tracking was inconsistent or incomplete, leading to inefficiency and defensibility risks.
  1. Multi-Party Coordination and Competing Agendas
    Most class actions involve multiple defendants, plaintiffs, and sometimes government regulators, all with different agendas. Meet-and-confer sessions frequently stall without clear, data-driven metrics, leaving disputes unresolved and timelines slipping. This lack of alignment not only delays progress, it also drives up costs as counsel circle the same issues repeatedly.In MDLs, plaintiff steering committees, liaison counsel, and bellwether trial scheduling add additional layers or coordination pressure that further complicate discovery negotiations and scope control.
  1. Compressed Timelines vs. Expanding Scope
    Courts often impose aggressive discovery deadlines. Yet as litigation evolves, discovery scope almost always expands. What begins as a defined request can balloon into multiple rounds of production and repeated negotiations. Teams scramble to keep up, while plaintiffs exploit the imbalance to ratchet up pressure, creating a cycle of reactive, costly work.
  1. Long-Term Preservation and IT Burdens
    Legal holds can last for years, tying up vast amounts of corporate data and straining  IT systems. Preserving too much data for too long increases compliance risks and creates unnecessary exposure. But lifting holds prematurely or inconsistently carries its own dangers.
  1. Runaway Review and Counsel Spend
    Hosting and review expenses climb as data is retained longer than anticipated. Re-review is common as new offshoot cases are filed and new issues emerge, and outside counsel spend skyrockets when discovery isn’t managed in a centralized, organized way.
  1. Judicial Scrutiny and Defensibility Risks
    Judges increasingly expect transparent, fact-based justifications of discovery positions. Delays, gaps, overproduction, or spoliation all invite sanctions and undermine credibility. Inconsistent positions across multi-year or related cases only compound the problem, damaging trust with the court.
  1. The Spin-Off Effect
    Class actions and MDLs rarely end with a single case. Derivative suits, regulatory investigations, tag-along cases, and individual actions coordinated through MDLs often emerge from the same set of facts. That means duplicative discovery obligations, inconsistent scope and rulings, increased costs, and strategic leverage by plaintiffs to force settlement outcomes.

The Bottom Line

Discovery is the cost center and risk engine of class actions and MDLs. Left unmanaged, it consumes years, drains resources, and undermines defense strategy. Understanding the root causes of chaos is the essential first step toward regaining control of class action discovery.

Ready for the Solution?

In Part 2, we’ll explore how a centralized, technology-enabled solution — Evidence Optix® — can transform class action and MDL discovery from chaos into a strategic advantage.

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1 Carlton Fields, “2025 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey: Best Practices in Reducing Cost and Managing Risk in Class Action Litigation” (Apr. 2025), available at https://www.carltonfields.com/getmedia/5c94a1c8-3263-48c9-91b3-9f3900a9dc76/2025-04-class-action-survey.pdf.

2 Ibid.