All signatures are obtained, but one. That is 35 or more publishers, 16 defendants and the plaintiffs. One defendant is in a bankruptcy reorganization and it must obtain court approval to sign the agreement. The approval is expected without problem. It will take about 3-4 weeks to obtain that approval, but that will hopefully not delay proceeding.

Soon (matter of days) plaintiffs will request preliminary approval from Judge Daniels. Once obtained (expected to be matter of weeks) the process of notice will start. Then in a matter of months there will be a hearing on final approval.

I will try to predict time lines before too long, but a rough estimate is that it will be approximately a year from now before claim payments go out.

Once preliminary approval is obtained I will conduct inquiries with the class and individual members with the aim of preparing for the process of claim review and defense challenges to claims. The review and defense challenge will not start until after final approval (and the passage of 30 additional days to see that there is no further appeal). But many of the issues that are likely or certain to be presented are foreshadowed by the initial review that has already taken place and by the negotiations over the last year or more. Thus, the effort will be to anticipate those issues and try to have their resolution take as short a time as possible.

Continuing last minute changes to documents. While the plaintiffs' side is pretty quick with changes the defense not so much. Supposedly getting publishers is completed.

The delays against predictions by the defense, recent ones are shown below, are so systematic that it's hard not to wonder if there has been something else going on beside signing up publishers.

Could be in a day or two, or could be longer - impossible to say. Some of the things, one in particular in the last couple of days, came entirely out of the blue.

8-2-31. Michael Boni to the court. Finalized Revised Settlement Agreement and Exhibits, including forms of notice. Defense group trying to get support from important publishers. We are told this should take several more weeks. It is everyone’s intention to file for preliminary approval by the end of September. [WE DID THINK DOCUMENTS WERE FINAL, BUT THERE HAVE BEEN ENDLESS CHANGES SINCE THEN, COMING MOSTLY FROM THE DEFENSE BUT SOME FROM THE PLAINTIFFS, AND THERE WERE TWO MISSING EXHIBITS EVEN THEN. HOW THE DEFENSE COULD HAVE PROJECTED “SEVERAL MORE WEEKS” IS UNKNOWABLE – THE LAST PUBLISHER WAS REPORTED OBTAINED LATE LAST WEEK]

9-5-13. Chalmers to the court. We are still aiming for September 30^th. Defense says they are working for that goal and will know more in two weeks or sooner.

9-20-13. Sims (Defense) to the court. We’re still  working for September 30^th.

9-30-13. Sims to the court. We’re still working hard. Expect to file by October 15^th.