The MDL court in the In re Welding Fume Products Liability Litigation, MDL-1535 (N.D. Ohio) recently issued an interesting Order about mediation. Not ordering mediation. Instead, it came to the Court’s attention that various plaintiff counsel have stated publicly that the Court has ordered the parties to engage in mediation. This statement, in turn, has led to various conjectures and to requests that assorted deadlines be postponed pending mediation. The Court issued an “Order to end inappropriate speculation.” Although the MDL Court did, sua sponte, raise the concept of mediation, the Court has not ordered any mediation in this case. In particular, the Court has scheduled the next MDL bellwether case – Byers v. Lincoln Electric Company – for trial in November of 2008. The Court issued the Order to make “clear here that it expects the parties will pursue all deadlines in their welding fumes litigation accordingly.” Motions in limine are due 9/15. Dispositive motions are due 9/8.

In this mass tort, plaintiffs have moved to dismiss more than 4,000 cases in the MDL. The total number of cases pending against the welding defendants has dropped by over two-thirds. Plaintiffs have been forced to dismiss five trial-ready cases, including three slated for early trials in the MDL. Although plaintiffs secured a significant verdict last December in the Tamraz case, it was the first plaintiff victory in several years, and juries have found for defendants in 20 of the last 23 plaintiffs’ cases tried in this litigation, including consolidated cases that are heavily weighted toward plaintiffs and cases in jurisdictions that are considered plaintiff-friendly.