In Re Allied Chemical Corp.

in which Justice HECHT, Justice MEDINA, Justice GREEN, and Justice WILLETT joined.

Trial judges have broad discretion in scheduling discovery and trial, but that discretion has never been unlimited. As we stated in 1847, trial courts may set trials as they wish, but not so indiscriminately that the parties are “deprived of any just defense, or that their rights would in any manner be jeopardized.” 1

Since 1847, new kinds of litigation have emerged that require new applications of this rule. Eleven years ago in Able Supply Co. v. Moye, we held that in mass tort cases involving hundreds of…