Fw: Settlement Updates

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message ----- From: Kathi

Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 12:58 AM

Subject: Settlement Updates

CLAIM FORM PACKAGE MAILING On December 11, 2002 order, Judge Page Hood entered an order that allows claim form packages to be mailed to all claimants and law firms during the week of February 18, 2003. These packages will contain forms for you to submit proof of your product identification and to apply for settlement benefits. The packages may take anywhere from 2-10 days to arrive after they are mailed during the week of February 18th, so please allow time for them to be delivered to you or, if you are represented, to your attorney. The Settlement Facility is currently planning a series of meetings in different cities around the U.S. in March 2003 to help claimants better understand the settlement benefits and claims process. As soon as we have complete information about these meetings, we will post it on this website. The Settlement Facility recently learned that the mailing vendor, R.R. Donnelly and Sons Company, prematurely and inadvertently mailed some claim form packages to approximately 40 law firms. The law firms that received the claim form packages have been directed by Judge Hood not to open or copy the claim form materials, and has ordered the claim form packages to be returned to the mailing vendor immediately. The Settlement Facility has taken appropriate action to ensure that no claims will be accepted by it prior to the mailing date of February 18, 2003. A copy of the Court's order can be viewed or downloaded by clicking on ORDER. APPEALS Several appeals to Judge Hood's December 11, 2002 order were filed by certain Nevadan claimants and two pro se claimants (claimants who are representing themselves without an attorney). The appeals will NOT delay or affect the mailing of the claim form packages in February 2003. You will be able to submit your claim documents while the appeals proceed. The next step is for the Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to enter a scheduling order that establishes when briefs must be submitted. As soon as we receive any information about the continuing appeals, we will post an update on this website. http://www.tortcomm.org/ Administrator's Corner Last Updated: 01/10/2003 @ 8:02 AM Dear Claimants and Counsel: We are getting ready for your claim forms to be mailed. We have been working on a series of information sessions for claimants and their counsel where we will discuss the claim form packages and give you a “virtual tour” of the Settlement Facility. We will be posting the dates and locations for these sessions here and sending notices to individuals in the areas we will be visiting. If you have questions or issues you would like addressed at those sessions—we urge you to send us an e-mail or letter with suggestions. You will notice that the Judge entered a recent Order about Claim Forms—I would like to share with you the information we have about what happened. On Wednesday January 8 in the afternoon we began to receive reports that some lawyers had received claim form packages. We were shocked and immediately called the mailing vendor, R.R. Donnelley Financial, to investigate the issue. We called the Judge and informed her of the issue as well. After investigation, R.R. Donnelley representatives called me back in the evening, informing me that due to their error 40 law firms had been sent their claim forms. On Thursday morning R.R. Donnelley, in consultation with our office, determined the fairest process was to withdraw all forms and, to assist us in that step, Judge Hood entered an order requiring that all forms be returned immediately. (Judge Hood also required that if any copies were made they must be destroyed.) The law firms have been very cooperative and we have personally called every firm who received these forms to alert them to this situation. R.R. Donnelley is sending personal representatives to each office to retrieve the claim forms and the process should be completed very quickly. We are confident we have created a process to maintain fairness to our claimants. We are appreciative that we heard from you about the rumors and we investigated them and we QUICKLY dealt with the error. Please help us to continue maintaining the fair, efficient resolution of your claims by keeping us informed about the rumors “out there”. We will do our job by investigating and correcting any problems we find!! Sincerely, http://www.dcsettlement.com/home.cfm?agree=9