PORTLAND – All 10 lawsuits stemming from efforts to collect human brains from dead bodies have been assigned to the same judge.

“I think it’s important when you have multiple lawyers and multiple cases, to bring order,” said Steven Silin, who represents five of the plaintiffs and asked that all the cases be assigned to the same judge.

Superior Court Chief Justice Thomas Humphrey said he assigned the 10 cases to Justice Nancy Mills, who is known for her involvement in a class-action lawsuit filed by patients at the Augusta Mental Health Institute.

The suit led to a 1990 consent decree that has sparked major changes in the state’s mental health system.

The brain harvesting litigation was initiated by families who say they did not give proper consent before their relatives’ brains were removed at the state Medical Examiner’s Office, then shipped to a Maryland research institute that studies the roots of severe mental illnesses.

The lawsuits, all filed within the past six months, have four common defendants: the Stanley Medical Research Institute of Bethesda, Md.; Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, the institute’s founder; Matthew Cyr, who had a contract to collect brains in Maine; and Lorie Stevens, an associate of Cyr.

All four defendants have denied wrongdoing in court documents.

Craig Rancourt, a Biddeford lawyer who represents another plaintiff, said he has no problem with a single judge handling all the cases.

“That judge is going to become very familiar with the issues,” Rancourt said, “and it just makes sense to have one judge calling the shots on the case, so that you have no inconsistencies.”