Modern MDL judges facing six-figure inventories sometimes order a census or registry: claimants register basic information, the court and defendants see the true size and shape of the claim pool, and the $405-per-case filing wave is deferred. In the 3M earplug litigation, more than 180,000 of roughly 260,000 claims sat on an administrative docket.
A registry claim is not a dead claim — registries preserved claims that later paid. But it is also not a filed lawsuit, and settlement programs may treat the two differently. Ask your firm which applies to you.
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