As judges preside over products-liability MDLs, they often institute a number of judicially created orders in lieu of more traditional procedures under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The graph illustrates when these events tend to occur.

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Plaintiff fact sheets tend to come before settlement, whereas census orders and lone pine orders tend to come after settlement as a way to encourage plaintiffs to enter into the settlement program.

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For more on the problems these orders can pose, see:

• Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Nudges and Norms in Multidistrict Litigation: A Response to Engstrom, 129 Yale L. J. Forum 64 (2019);

• Nora Freeman Engstrom, The Lessons of Lone Pine, 129 Yale L. Rev. 1 (2019).

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Clicking on the graph will provide an interactive version with dates included.