The Digitek MDL Judge, on March 5th, entered PTO # 16, which details important case management and scheduling deadlines in this mass tort.
For those interested in some of the nuts and bolts of managing an MDL: the Order requires that within 45 days, each defendant named in the Master Complaint shall file a Master Answer or a Fed. R. Civ. P. 12 motion in response to the Master Complaint.
The Order sets deadline for plaintiffs to request and brief class certification of any wrongful death, personal injury or medical monitoring putative class in September, 2009.
Plaintiffs are required to fill out and sign Plaintiff Fact Sheets, providing basic fact discovery. It sets up a process for handling deficiencies in the responses.
Plaintiffs are to provide signed undated authorizations for the gathering of medical records, and addresses for each health care provider, including hospitals, clinics and outpatient treatment centers, and any other custodian of records identified in a plaintiff’s Fact Sheet.
Plaintiffs are ordered to produce medical and pharmacy records in their possession establishing that the plaintiff was prescribed Digitek and the date(s) on which each prescription issued.
The Order set up a procedure for governing the oft-debated ex parte contact by defendants of treating physicians.
Defendants are ordered to provide organizational chart information as well as QC/QA structures. Also specifications, instructions, test methods and standard operating procedures relating to the manufacture of Digitek; quality assurance/control and testing records for Digitek, and any of its component ingredients, including but not limited to records related to batch sampling, post-manufacturing testing and finished goods testing.
The Order establishes a procedure for privilege logs. The parties were directed to reach an agreement concerning a document production protocol to include the production format of paper and electronic documents, objective coding and metadata, privilege logs and any other applicable issues. In the event the parties cannot agree, the issues will be presented to Magistrate Judge Stanley for resolution.
The PTO also sets deadlines for service of interrogatories, document requests, and company witness depositions. As to expert discovery: Plaintiffs shall serve their reports from liability experts no later than January 1, 2010. The parties shall complete their depositions of Plaintiffs’ liability experts no later than March 12, 2010. Defendants shall serve their reports from liability experts no later than March 31, 2010. The parties shall complete their depositions of Defendants’ liability experts no later than June 11, 2010.
To efficiently manage discovery for all currently pending and future cases in the MDL, the cases will be divided into groups, with each group having a separate scheduling order. Following completion of the first wave of Plaintiffs’ Fact Sheets the Court shall schedule a hearing for purposes of selecting the initial trial pool of cases (“Group 1”). No later than 5 days before the hearing, Plaintiffs shall select 15 cases and the Defendants shall select 15 cases, and each side shall exchange lists of such selections and submit them to the Court. Within 10 days after the scheduled hearing, the Court shall select a total of no more than twenty of the proposed trial pool cases to constitute Group 1.
Case specific discovery is set up by Group, with staggered dates of initial discovery (DID), corresponding discovery deadlines, and Daubert and dispositive motions deadlines 310 days after DID.