ORDER RE DEFENDANTS' REQUEST FOR DAP SETTLEMENT REPORT

JON S. TIGAR, District Judge.

Pursuant to the court's order regarding Direct Action Plaintiff ("DAP") aggregate settlement amounts to be disclosed under an appropriately tailored seal to the attorneys in all DAP actions,1 counsel on behalf of LG and other defendants2 now requests that the undersigned release under appropriate seal a report of the aggregate settlement amount to date in the DAP actions. Apr 7, 2016 Brad Brian Letter ("Defendants' request"). The October 7, 2015 Order directed the settling DAPs "to provide a copy of all settlement agreements to Special Master Walker for in camera review, each with a joint cover letter by relevant settling parties highlighting those portions relating to compensation and cooperation" and the Special Master to "aggregate compensation values and release, under an appropriately tailored seal, said aggregate value to all attorneys" in the DAP actions. See October 7, 2015 Order at 3. The order also provided an updating procedure that protected against deducing the amount of single settlement figures by requiring the Special Master to "delay such updates to ensure that the update includes new values from enough additional settlements (not fewer than two (2), absent compelling reason) that attorneys in other DAP cases cannot through simple math determine the amount paid in any one specific settling DAP case by comparing the change in value from one update to the next." Id. at 4.

In the meantime, some but not all DAPs provided their settlement agreements to the undersigned and a number of new stipulated dismissals of DAP actions have been recorded in the docket without submission of the corresponding settlement agreements to the undersigned. Based on a review of the DAP submissions and the current CRT docket, it appears that at least the following settlement agreements and executed terms of agreement3 should be submitted forthwith to the undersigned pursuant to the October 7, 2015 Order:

To the extent there are additional CRT settlement agreements including executed terms of settlement, involving any of the DAP actions, those should also be submitted promptly to the undersigned as part of the parties' ongoing duty to update the DAP settlement submissions.

Having not received any objection to Defendants' request and perceiving no reason not to continue implementing the October 7, 2015 Order, the undersigned shall undertake to analyze the DAP settlement submissions and issue a report. But to do so, the undersigned needs to include updated DAP settlement agreements including executed terms of agreement. Accordingly, by no later than April 18, 2016, each DAP shall submit all of its CRT settlement agreements including executed terms of agreement to the undersigned for in camera review along with a letter confirming that they have submitted all such settlement agreements including executed terms of agreement pursuant to the October 7, 2015 Order.

CONCLUSION

Defendants' request is GRANTED. No later than April 18, 2016, all DAPs shall submit their CRT settlement agreements including executed terms of agreement to date to the undersigned along with a letter confirming that they have submitted all such documents that exist to date. No later than April 20, 2016, each Defendant that has settled a DAP action shall coordinate with their settling DAP to ensure that their settlement agreement or executed terms of agreement have been submitted to the undersigned on April 18, 2016. No later than April 21, 2016, each settling Defendant shall submit any settlement agreement or executed terms of agreement that may be missing from the April 16, 2016 DAP submissions and a letter confirming that all settlement agreements or executed terms of settlement of DAP actions to which they are a party have been submitted to the undersigned. The undersigned shall then prepare a report of the aggregate value of the settlements of all DAP actions to date and release it under appropriate seal to all attorneys in the DAP Actions.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

The Recommended Order of the Special Master is Accepted and Ordered/Denied/Modified.