SHORT FORM JOINDERS On January 12, 2011, the Court entered Pretrial Order No.

24 allowing for claimants to file, without a filing fee, a short form joinder that: 1) is deemed to be a simultaneous filing of an answer and claim in Cause of Action No. 10-2771 (the Limitation Action); and 2) an intervention into (or adoption/joinder of) one or more of the Master Complaints (Rec. Docs. 879 and/or 881) in MDL 2179. To file a short form joinder, a claimant was required to either electronically file with the Clerk of the Court in CA 10-8888 or mail the short form joinder to the Clerk postmarked by April 20, 2011. More than 100,000 short form joinders were filed. The Court has since entered an order foreclosing the filing of claims, either by use of the short form or otherwise, into the Limitation Action. However, while the short form no longer automatically joins a claimant into the Limitation Action, the short form joinder can still be used, without a filing fee, to intervene into the Master Complaint and effectively file a claim in Court. In addition, claimants wishing to join in the Limitation Action can file a motion for leave to allow for a late filing into the Limitation Action outside of the monition date.