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I have been in touch with an attorney and here is the reason some people have been receiving letters regarding their claims .

Some families are receiving requests for medical records because attorneys with large numbers of cases (more than 50 and sometimes others as well) have been asked to designate five cases per month in which they would file the records.

This goes back to january and the first "90 day orders" emanating from this prodedure required records to be filed April 15, 2008. For cases filed prior to July 1, 2007 this is the most likely explanation. In most, if not all, cases, therefore, the attorneys selected the cases that would be subject to the "90" day order so it should not be a surprise.

The attorneys should be explaining this to the families.

In cases filed after July 1, 2007 the Chief Special Masters has been issuing "60 day orders" requiring records to be filed in 60 days. This is because of the belief that cases filed so late in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding likely were not timely.

The initial purpose of this-especially for the post July1, 2007 cases is to screen for the statute of limitations.

The standard being applied to determine timeliness was enunciated in Markovich v HHS, but is still subject to intrepretation. The Markovich standard governs when the 3 year statute would begin to run(or would be "triggered" or accrue.") The statute of limitations is triggered when "onset of symptoms" occurs. Under Markovich "onset of symptoms" is defined as follows: "the first symptoms or manifestation of onset is the first event objectively recognizable as a sign of vaccine injury by the medical profession at large.

Hope this helps those of you with questions.

Maurine