Since the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (“JPML”) designated the Multidistrict Litigation (“MDL”) on December 17, 2014, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (“EDLA”) has issued numerous Pretrial Orders and Case Management Orders to guide and control the MDL.

On December 17, 2014, the EDLA issued Pretrial Order #1, which set the initial pretrial conference before Judge Eldon E. Fallon, U.S.D.J., and solicited nominations for Liaison Counsel and Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (“PSC”).

On January 16, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Orders #2 and #3, which appointed Gerald E. Meunier and Leonard A. Davis as Co-Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel, and James B. Irwin as Defendants’ Liaison Counsel.

On January 26, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Orders #4 and #4A, setting forth a contact form and contact information to be provided to Liaison Counsel.

On January 26, 2015, and February 3, 2015, respectively, the EDLA issued Pretrial Orders #5 and #5A, which clarified the procedures for transferring cases from the transferee courts to the MDL.

On February 3, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Order #6, which appointed Susan M. Sharko and Steven Glickstein as Co-Lead Defense Counsel.

On February 9, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Order #7, which then appointed the PSC and its Executive Committee.

On February 13, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Order #8, outlining the procedure for recovering common benefit costs and fees.

On March 24, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Orders #9 and #10, which permitted Xarelto cases to be filed directly in the MDL and outlined the procedure for service of process.

On April 29, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Order #7A, appointing Michael Weinkowitz, Daniel Gallucci and Gibson Vance to the State Liaison Committee.

On May 4, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Orders #11, #13, #14 and #16, outlining the procedures for bundling Complaints and Answers; drafting and serving Plaintiff Fact Sheets (“PFS”) and Defendant Fact Sheets (“DFS”); and the filing and serving Summonses and Waivers of Service (later slightly amended on August 17, 2015, by Pretrial Order #14A). On that day, the EDLA also issued Pretrial Orders #12 and #15, setting forth a Stipulated Protective Order and Consent Order regarding the preservation of documents and electronic information.

In addition, on May 4, 2015, the EDLA issued Case Management Order #1, which set forth scheduling and other general parameters of: 1. Voluntary Disclosure and Production by Defendants; 2. Plaintiffs’ Master Set of Requests for Production; 3. Depositions and Subpoenas to Non-Parties; 4. PFS’s and DFS’s; 5. Science Day; 6. State and Federal Liaison; 7. Proposed Topics of Case Management Order No. 2; and 8. Bundling of Complaints and Answers and Responsive Pleadings.

On May 20, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Order #11A, adopting a form Joint Complaint and Short Form Complaint. That same day, the EDLA also issued Pretrial Order #17, memorializing the Parties’ agreement to utilize the BrownGreer MDL Centrality system to share documents.

On May 21, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Order #18, which outlined the schedule and procedure for a Xarelto Science Day.

On June 4, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Order #19, which then outlined the procedure for handling privileged and work product documents.

In addition, on September 17, 2015, the EDLA issued Case Management Order 2, setting forth scheduling and other general parameters of: 1. the Applicability of the Order; 2. Bellwether Trials; 3. Defendant Discovery; 4. Third-Party Discovery; 5. Bellwether Selection and Discovery; 6. Bellwether Selection; 7. Bellwether Trial Discovery; 8. Expert Schedule for Bellwether Trials; 9. Briefing Schedule for Dispositive and Daubert Motions; 10. Schedule for Trial Preparation Documents for the First Bellwether Trial.

On July 15, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Orders #11B and #11C, which clarified previous Orders concerning filing fees, voluntary dismissals and the filing of Amended Complaints.

On September 17, 2015, the EDLA issued Pretrial Orders #15A and #21, outlining the procedure for the preservation of emails, text messages and instant messages, and establishing a document production protocol (later slightly amended on October 21, 2015, by Pretrial Order #15B).

All of the above Pretrial Orders and Case Management Orders, and all new Xarelto MDL Orders, will be examined more closely in related blogs in the next several weeks.