The panel of multidistrict litigation judges will decide whether to consolidate the cases in a hearing in Boise, Idaho, on July 29.

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The idea is to avoid the so-called multidistrict litigation (MDL) process, in which hundreds of cases are under the oversight of a single federal judge in New Orleans.

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Vince Galvin of Bowman and Brooke, who represents Toyota in the current multidistrict litigation over unintended acceleration in its cars, acknowledged that preemption was unlikely to be an issue in that case.

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