Can courts consolidate cases involving joined parties?

Courts can consolidate cases involving joined parties to streamline the legal process, which is an essential tool to promote efficiency and reduce the burden on the court system. When multiple cases share common questions of law or fact, consolidation allows the courts to handle these cases together, thus saving time and resources. It minimizes the risk of inconsistent verdicts, which could arise if the same issues were tried separately in different courtrooms.

This consolidation process applies broadly to cases with joined parties and is not limited to situations where the parties must agree or are exclusively in class-action lawsuits. The ability to consolidate is rooted in judicial discretion and is guided by considerations such as convenience, trial efficiency, and the interests of justice.