A federal judge ruled Wednesday that attorneys representing patients who contracted fungal meningitis will be allowed to conduct their own inspections of the New England Compounding Center while they await word from a federal judicial panel on where the cases will be heard.

Twelve federal lawsuits have been filed in Massachusetts against the drug compounding facility accused of selling tainted steroids that sparked a nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak, and it will be months before anyone knows whether the cases will be heard in Massachusetts and whether they will be consolidated with other lawsuits filed across the country.