Lopez

ORDER

Numerous federal lawsuits have been filed against Baxter Healthcare Corporation alleging the defective manufacture of Baxter’s product, Gammagard. The Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation consolidated all of the lawsuits and transferred them to the United States District Court for the Central District of California solely for coordinated pre-trial proceedings. The cases were assigned to the Honorable Manuel L. Real in Los Angeles.

Judge Real entered a number of pretrial orders in these cases. The one in question is Case Management Order (“CMO”) No. 7 in which Judge Real created a “Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee” to oversee two funds to which all of the Baxter plaintiffs are required to contribute — a “litigation expense fund” and a “counsel fee fund.” Intended as a mechanism to coordinate and share the cost of discovery, CMO No. 7 requires plaintiffs’ counsel in each of the consolidated cases to deposit $7,500.00 into the litigation expense fund, and six percent of whatever they recover against Baxter into the counsel fee fund (up to a maximum counsel fee contribution of $75,000.00). The order contains a refund provision that will apply to funds left over at the…