Parents researching the baby-formula NEC lawsuits run into the same confusing phrase over and over: sometimes they read “class action,” sometimes “MDL,” sometimes a headline about a jury verdict in an Illinois or Missouri courtroom that seems to have nothing to do with the federal cases. It is easy to come away thinking either that there is one giant lawsuit everyone is automatically part of, or that the different court cases are competing with each other. Neither is true.
Understanding how these cases are actually organized matters, because it changes what a family can expect. This article explains, in plain English, why the NEC formula litigation is not a class action, what a multidistrict litigation (MDL) really is, why the same kind of injury is being tried in two different court systems at the same time, and — most importantly — why your child’s case stays your child’s case no matter which system it lands in.
The one-sentence version. The NEC baby-formula lawsuit is not a class action — it is a group of thousands of individual lawsuits, some consolidated in a federal MDL for shared pretrial work and many others proceeding separately in state courts, with each family keeping its own case, its own records, and its own outcome.
Is the NEC baby formula lawsuit a class action?
No. The NEC baby-formula litigation is not a class action. In federal court the cases are grouped as a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, and many other cases proceed individually in state courts in Illinois, Missouri, and elsewhere. In both a federal MDL and a state-court case, each family keeps its own separate lawsuit, its own facts, and its own outcome. Nothing about the way these cases are organized forces a family into a single group settlement or a one-size-fits-all judgment the way a class action would.
That distinction is not a technicality. A class action treats a large group of people as essentially interchangeable, because their claims are so similar that one lawsuit can resolve all of them at once. NEC formula claims are the opposite: every child was born at a different gestational age and weight, was fed a different mix of products over a different timeline, and developed a different severity of disease documented in a different medical chart. Those differences are exactly why the courts have handled these cases as individual lawsuits rather than as a single class.
Class action vs. MDL: what is actually different
Both tools exist to handle large numbers of related lawsuits efficiently, but they work in fundamentally different ways. A class action is governed by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23; a multidistrict litigation is created under a federal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1407. Here is the practical contrast.
| Class action (Rule 23) | MDL (28 U.S.C. § 1407) | |
|---|---|---|
| How many lawsuits | One lawsuit, filed by a few named representatives on behalf of everyone in the class. | Many separate lawsuits, each with its own named plaintiff, grouped before one judge. |
| What gets decided together | Almost everything — liability and the outcome are resolved for the whole class at once. | Only shared pretrial work: discovery, document production, and expert (Daubert) rulings. |
| Whose facts control | The class representatives’ facts largely stand in for everyone. | Each case is decided on that individual child’s own medical records and facts. |
| The outcome | A single judgment or settlement binds every class member. | Each case can be tried, settled, or dismissed on its own; one result does not bind the others. |
| Where trial happens | In the single court handling the class. | Cases return to their home court for trial after shared pretrial work is done. |
The NEC cases are handled as an MDL, not a class action. In the federal system, that MDL is In re: Abbott Laboratories, et al., Preterm Infant Nutrition Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3026, assigned to Chief Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Hundreds of federal cases have been transferred there so the parties can litigate the shared scientific and legal questions once, rather than a thousand separate times — but the individual cases are not merged into a single claim. We track the status of that proceeding in our NEC MDL 3026 update.
Why families are not “signing up for a class.” Because this is an MDL and a set of individual state cases — not a class action — there is no class to opt into or out of. A family with a qualifying NEC injury files (or has filed) its own individual lawsuit. That is why the review process starts with one child’s records, not with a group sign-up sheet.
Where NEC cases are actually heard: two court systems at once
One of the most confusing things for families is that NEC formula cases are moving through two separate court systems simultaneously — the federal courts and various state courts — and both have already produced trials. These systems run in parallel, not in competition.
MDL 3026 (N.D. Illinois)
Federal cases nationwide are consolidated before Judge Pallmeyer for coordinated pretrial proceedings. Bellwether test cases are tried here; the first federal Mead Johnson bellwether began in July 2026.
Cook & Madison County
Illinois state courts have held their own NEC trials, and dozens of state cases have been coordinated in Madison County. State juries in Illinois have returned verdicts against the formula makers.
St. Louis City
St. Louis has been a major state-court venue, with trials producing verdicts both for families and, in July 2026, a defense verdict for Mead Johnson on causation.
This is why a family can read about a jury verdict in a Cook County or St. Louis courtroom in the same week they read about a federal bellwether in Chicago. They are different cases, in different courts, under different sets of rules — but all part of the same broad litigation over cow’s-milk-based preterm formula and NEC. For a closer look at the test cases, see our overview of the 2026 NEC bellwether trials, and for how a recent state-court loss turned on the causation evidence, our explainer on the July 2 St. Louis defense verdict and general vs. specific causation.
Why the same injury can be a federal case or a state case
Whether a given lawsuit ends up in federal or state court is not random — it turns on jurisdiction rules that predate this litigation entirely. A plaintiff generally chooses where to file, but a defendant can sometimes move a case from state to federal court through a process called removal, under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332 and 1441, when the parties are from different states and the amount in dispute is large enough (“diversity jurisdiction”). Once a case is in federal court, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation can transfer it into MDL 3026.
Cases that are filed in state court and cannot be removed — often because of how the parties and defendants are situated — stay in state court. That is why active NEC trials have gone forward in Illinois and Missouri state courts even as the federal MDL handles its own docket. The court a case belongs in is a genuine legal question with real consequences for timing and procedure, and it is one of the first things a lawyer evaluates when reviewing a potential claim.
“Families sometimes think the court is just a formality — it is not,” says Alex Alvarez, Managing Partner of The Alvarez Law Firm and a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer. “Where a case is filed shapes the schedule, the rules of evidence, and the path to trial. But here is the part parents should hold onto: in every one of these systems, your case is your case. This is not a class action where you are one anonymous name in a giant group. Your child’s records, your child’s diagnosis, your child’s timeline — that is what your case is built on, and that does not change whether we are in the federal MDL or a state courtroom.”
What “your case stays yours” means in practice
The individual nature of these cases is not just a talking point; it is written into how the MDL works. Under the Supreme Court’s decision in Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss (1998), an MDL judge coordinates pretrial matters but cannot force a plaintiff to have the actual trial in the MDL court over the plaintiff’s objection — the case is meant to return to its home court for trial. In other words, consolidation is for efficiency during the investigation-and-discovery phase; it does not swallow the individual lawsuit.
Practically, this means three things for a family:
- No group settlement is imposed on you. Because there is no certified class, a family is not automatically bound by a deal negotiated for everyone else.
- Your evidence is your own. The shared MDL work resolves common questions once, but liability and damages in your case still depend on your child’s specific medical record.
- A bellwether result does not decide you. Test-case verdicts guide the litigation, but they do not enter a judgment against or for your individual claim.
“When I review a file, I am not reviewing ‘the NEC litigation’ in the abstract — I am reviewing one child’s NICU chart,” says Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D., the firm’s Medical-Legal Expert. “The feeding orders, the imaging, the Bell staging, the operative notes if there was surgery. That record travels with the individual case regardless of whether it sits in a federal MDL or a state court. The organizational label above the case does not change the medicine inside it, and the medicine inside it is what carries the claim.”
This is general information, not legal advice. How these cases are organized, and which court a specific claim belongs in, depends on the facts of that claim and on jurisdiction rules that can change as the litigation develops. Nothing here predicts the result of any case. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes; each case is evaluated on its own facts.
How The Alvarez Law Firm approaches the “class action?” question
When a parent asks whether they are joining a class action, our answer is a reassuring no — and an explanation of what that actually means for them. We evaluate each family’s situation individually, obtain the complete NICU record, and confirm the facts that matter: how premature the baby was, whether a cow’s-milk-based formula or fortifier was fed, and whether NEC was documented. From there, the question of federal MDL versus state court is a strategic and jurisdictional one we handle — not a hurdle the family has to sort out alone. Our team, led by Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer Alex Alvarez and supported by Medical-Legal Expert Herb Borroto, M.D., J.D., represents families nationwide, and every case we take is that family’s own individual claim.
Free, confidential case review. No fees unless we recover compensation for you.
- See if your family qualifies: Do I qualify for an NEC lawsuit?
- Follow the federal proceeding: NEC MDL 3026 update.
- Understand the test cases: 2026 NEC bellwether trials.
- Know the deadline: NEC filing deadlines, state by state.
Frequently asked questions
Is the NEC baby formula lawsuit a class action?
No. The NEC baby-formula litigation is not a class action. In federal court the cases are grouped as a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, and many other cases proceed individually in state courts in Illinois, Missouri, and elsewhere. In both a federal MDL and a state-court case, each family keeps its own separate lawsuit, its own facts, and its own outcome. Nothing about the way these cases are organized forces a family into a single group settlement or a one-size-fits-all judgment the way a class action would.
What is the difference between an MDL and a class action?
In a class action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, one lawsuit is brought by a few representatives on behalf of a large group, and a single judgment or settlement binds everyone in the class. In a multidistrict litigation under 28 U.S.C. Section 1407, many separate lawsuits are transferred to one judge only to share pretrial work like discovery and expert rulings, but each case remains its own lawsuit with its own plaintiff, its own evidence, and its own verdict. NEC formula cases are handled as an MDL, not a class action, so each child’s case is decided on that child’s records.
Will my NEC case be in federal court or state court?
It depends on how and where the case is filed and on jurisdiction rules. A case filed in or removed to federal court is typically transferred into MDL 3026 in the Northern District of Illinois for coordinated pretrial proceedings. A case that is filed in state court and is not removable may stay in state court, which is why active NEC trials have taken place in Cook County, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri while the federal MDL proceeds separately. The right court depends on the specific facts, and it is one of the first things a lawyer evaluates.
Do the bellwether trial verdicts decide my case?
No. Bellwether trials are representative test cases chosen to show how juries respond to the shared evidence, and their verdicts do not directly decide any other family’s case. A win or a loss in a bellwether or in a state-court trial can influence the overall course of the litigation and settlement discussions, but it does not bind your individual case. Your case still rises or falls on your own child’s medical records and facts, whether it is in the federal MDL or in state court.
Sources
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois — In re: Abbott Laboratories, et al., Preterm Infant Nutrition Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3026 (Hon. Rebecca R. Pallmeyer). ilnd.uscourts.gov
- U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) — MDL statistics and transfer orders for MDL No. 3026. jpml.uscourts.gov
- 28 U.S.C. § 1407 — the federal multidistrict litigation statute (consolidation for coordinated pretrial proceedings). Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. law.cornell.edu
- Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 — class actions. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. law.cornell.edu
- Lexecon Inc. v. Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, 523 U.S. 26 (1998) — MDL transferee court must remand a case for trial rather than try it over a party’s objection. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. law.cornell.edu
- 28 U.S.C. §§ 1332 & 1441 — diversity jurisdiction and removal of civil actions from state to federal court. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. law.cornell.edu