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Case Developments
Last Updated: October 5,
2007
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August 14, 2007 |
The Court issued an Order granting Lead Counsel's motion to
approve the fee award proposed by the Attorneys' Fee Compensation
Committee. See Order
for details. |
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May 29, 2007 |
The Court issued an Order granting in part and denying in
part defendant's motion to dismiss.
See
Order for
details. |
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January 25, 2007 |
The Court issued an Order outlining deadlines regarding the
defendant's motion for partial dismissal, filed on April 11, 2005. (R.
Doc. 54). See Order
for details. |
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August 31, 2006 |
The Court approved the
settlement. See
Order for details. |
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July 16, 2006 |
The Court held a Fairness Hearing to
evaluate the proposed settlement. See
Transcript for details. |
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December 1, 2005 |
The Court issued an Order
that dismissed the plaintiffs’ antitrust claims and the plaintiffs’
monopolization claims under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. See
Antitrust Order for
details. |
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September 14, 2005 |
The Court did not hold
this status conference because of Hurricane Katrina. |
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June 24, 2005 |
The Court modified
Pretrial Order No. 2 such that the Plaintiffs shall file their class
certification motion 150 days from the date of the filing of Defendant’s
answer to the consolidated complaint. This order establishes a schedule
for the conduct of discovery related to the issue of class certification.
See Pretrial Order No. 5 for
details. |
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June 2, 2005 |
The Court held the third
status conference, which dealt with class certification discovery issues
and website concerns. The Court also heard oral argument on the
defendant’s Rule 12 motion. See
Pretrial Order No. 4 for details.
The Court scheduled the next status conference on
Wednesday, September 14, 2005, at 10:30
a.m. |
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April 13, 2005 |
The Court determined that
all causes of action in the underlying lawsuits that are not included in
the Master Administrative Complaint will be dismissed with prejudice
unless counsel for the plaintiffs in the underlying lawsuits
moves to
separate those causes of action from the Master Administrative Complaint
within 30 days. |
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March 10, 2005 |
The Court held the
second status conference, which dealt with the deadline for the filing of
the joint status report, the unresolved issue of the proposed
confidentiality order, the joint discovery plan for class certification,
the service list, and the date for the next pretrial conference. The Court
set deadlines for briefs on specific issues. See
Pretrial Order No. 3 for
details. The Court scheduled the next
status conference on Thursday, June 2,
2005, at 10:30 a.m.
The plaintiffs filed an
Administrative Master
Complaint. |
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March 4, 2005 |
The Court amended
Pretrial Order No. 2 to address the issues of attorney fees and expenses
and the procedure for handling tag-along cases. See
Amended Pretrial Order
No. 2 for
details. |
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February 14, 2005 |
The Court entered an Order
appointing the following lawyers to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC):
Richard J.
Arsenault
Dawn M.
Barrios
Philip Bohrer
Phyllis E.
Brown
Joseph Bruno
Walter J.
Leger
Sherrie R. Savett
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February 9, 2005 |
The Court amended Pretrial Order No. 1 regarding docketing matters in the
Master File. See
Amended Pretrial Order No. 1 for details. |
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February 1, 2005 |
Conditional
Transfer Order-1 received from
the MDL Panel transferring eleven (11) civil actions to the Eastern
District of Louisiana. |
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January 24, 2005 |
The Court held a status
conference on January 20, 2005. As a result, the Court issued
Pretrial Order No. 2
establishing deadlines for the master complaint, Rule 12 motions,
voluntary disclosures, interrogatories and document requests and class
certification proceedings. The Court also made the following appointments:
Plaintiffs’
Lead Counsel:
Dawn Barrios, of Barrios, Kingsdorf, & Casteix, L.L.P.
Plaintiffs’
Liaison Counsel:
Richard Arsenault, of Neblett, Beard, & Arsenault
State Court
Litigation Liaison:
Christopher Seeger, of Seeger Weiss, L.L.P.
The Court
scheduled the next status conference on
Thursday, March 10,
2005, at 1:00 p.m. |
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January 4, 2005 |
The Court issued
Pretrial Order No. 1
scheduling an initial conference for January 20, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. in
Judge Vance’s courtroom, Room C279, United States Courthouse, 500 Poydras
Street, New Orleans, LA 70130. The Court stated that the conference would
be held for the purposes specified in Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(a), 16(b), 16(c),
and 26(f).
Counsel for the plaintiffs and the defendants were ordered to submit
separate written statements indicating their preliminary understandings of
the facts involved in the litigation and the critical factual and legal
issues. The submissions were to contain the parties’ proposals for the
organization of counsel and were due January 14, 2005.
The Court stated that
it would consider appointing Plaintiffs’ lead counsel and/or a Plaintiffs’
steering committee, as well as Plaintiffs’ liaison counsel. The Court
ordered applications for these positions to be filed with the clerk’s
office on or before January 14, 2005. |
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December 17, 2004 |
Order
received from the MDL Panel transferring nine civil action cases to the
Eastern District of Louisiana. |
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