The federal judge overseeing the massive multidistrict litigation over 3M’s Combat Arms Earplugs ordered the parties on Friday to begin mediation next month and attempt to reach a good faith settlement before district courts are “flooded” with cases from the MDL. In the order, U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers said the MDL is at a “critical juncture,” with all evidence necessary to evaluate claims from the plaintiffs having been identified, and the conclusion of 16 bellwether cases giving the parties a clear idea of the risks and likely outcomes of litigation. “At this stage, there can be no reasonable dispute that the litigants in this MDL have more data points about individual claims, and the broader whole, than any other litigants in the country,”

Three plaintiffs in the sprawling multidistrict litigation over the carcinogens found in the popular heartburn medication Zantac asked the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday to revive their state law claims against generic and brand-name drugmakers but may face procedural roadblocks in their appeals. Over the course of three oral arguments before an appellate panel in Miami, the main theme was whether the three plaintiffs — Illinois resident Arthur Cartee, Alabama resident Marilyn Williams and Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union 630 — were properly before the Eleventh Circuit in the first place. Ashley Keller of Keller Lenkner LLC, who argued for the plaintiffs in all three sessions, pushed back against the drugmakers’ arguments that after U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg trimmed claims from the MDL, Cartee and