Mass Tort (MDL) Time and Expense Tracking Requirements: A Practical Guide for Firms New to Common Benefit Work
Summary Federal judges in mass tort MDLs require participating firms to track time and expenses on contingency cases in tenth-of-an-hour detail, submit monthly, and stay inside narrow expense rules. Overhead is excluded. Travel is capped at coach airfare. Alcohol is not reimbursable. This post walks new mass tort firms through what the court actually orders, using the current Common Benefit Order from MDL 3047 as the working example.
Primary Source: Common Benefit Order, In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation (the “Facebook/Meta and Social Media MDL”), MDL No. 3047, N.D. Cal., entered March 6, 2023. Every requirement, dollar cap, and submission rule described below is drawn from this order.
Most trial attorneys don’t track time. They work contingency cases. They win or they lose, and the hourly log feels like something defense lawyers do. Then a partner signs the firm onto its first MDL and finds out the federal judge expects tenth-of-an-hour time entries, monthly expense submissions in a court-mandated format, coach-class plane tickets, photocopies capped at twenty cents a page, and no alcohol on the meal receipts.
The mass tort (MDL) time and expense tracking requirements aren’t a billing convention or a vendor preference. They’re a federal court order. The transferee judge enters the order, the firm agrees to it by signing the Participation Agreement or by having a case filed in the MDL, and the judge enforces it when it’s time to disburse the common benefit fund.
We’ll use the Common Benefit Order in MDL 3047, entered by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in March 2023, as the working example. The structure is now a template that MDL courts across the country are working from.
What Are the Time and Expense Tracking Requirements in a Mass Tort MDL?
Mass tort (MDL) time and expense tracking requirements are federal court orders directing participating counsel to keep contemporaneous time records in tenth-of-an-hour increments, submit time and expenses monthly with PDF receipts, follow strict expense category limits, and accept waiver of reimbursement for any work that doesn’t comply.
The order isn’t issued by the plaintiffs’ steering committee. It comes from the federal judge presiding over the MDL. In the social media litigation, the order makes the rule plain. Counsel are eligible for fees and reimbursement only if the time expended, costs incurred, and activity in question were “for the common benefit of Plaintiffs,” “timely submitted,” and “reasonable.”
All three prongs have to be met. Miss one and the entry doesn’t count.
If a firm has a case filed in the MDL, it’s automatically bound. If it has cases elsewhere with a fee interest, it gets bound by signing the Participation Agreement. The Bolch Judicial Institute’s MDL Guidelines treat this framework as standard national practice.
Why Do Trial Lawyers Have to Track Time on a Contingency Case?
Trial lawyers track time in an MDL because the common benefit fee is a separate award from a court-administered fund, calculated using the lodestar method (hours times rate). The fund pays leadership counsel for work that benefits all plaintiffs, and the judge needs verifiable hours to set the award.
This is the part most partners struggle with. The firm’s own contingency fee on its own client’s recovery is unchanged. The common benefit fee is on top of that, paid from a separate fund built by assessing a percentage of every settlement in the MDL. In MDL 3047, that assessment is a combined 10% of every Gross Monetary Recovery.
The Federal Judicial Center’s Manual for Complex Litigation (Fourth) lays out the lodestar standard, and it’s the playbook MDL judges work from. Reconstructed time gets discounted or rejected. That’s the whole reason for the tenth-of-an-hour, contemporaneous rule.
What a Compliant Time Entry Looks Like
The order leaves no daylight on format. All time must be accurately and contemporaneously maintained, and counsel must keep records in tenth-of-an-hour increments with a description of the specific activity.
Descriptions have to be specific. The order gives an example of an acceptable entry (“conducted deposition of John Doe”) and rejects shortcuts. Initials alone aren’t allowed. “John Doe” is preferred. “J. Doe” is acceptable. “JD” is not.
Each entry needs a category code from the order’s exhibit, and a single entry can’t span two categories. If a timekeeper does deposition work and brief drafting on the same day, that’s two entries with separate codes, not one combined line.
This level of detail is hard to manufacture after the fact. Firms that try to reconstruct time at month-end consistently get flagged by the auditor and lose entries. The right tool helps. Our take on selecting legal time tracking software is a good starting point.
What Time Will the Court Not Compensate?
MDL courts don’t compensate unauthorized work, duplicative time, time spent on internal firm management, time spent organizing case files, time spent preparing the time and expense submissions themselves, or attendance at industry seminars unless approved in advance.
The social media MDL order is specific. The non-compensable list includes time not authorized by Co-Lead Counsel, duplicative time, excessive time on any one task, work performed by someone more senior than the task required, time organizing case files, time on internal firm management, and time preparing the time and expense submissions themselves.
Industry seminars are called out by name. Attendance at “American Association for Justice Section Meetings, Mass Torts Made Perfect, Harris Martin, and similar seminars” doesn’t qualify as common benefit work unless approved in advance by Co-Lead Counsel.
Status conference attendance is in the same bucket. Only counsel specifically tasked with addressing the issues at a status conference can submit that time.
What Expenses Can a Firm Recover from the Common Benefit Fund?
MDL common benefit orders split reimbursable expenses into two buckets. Shared Costs are paid directly out of the Litigation Fund (court reporters, generic expert fees, the document depository, banking, the auditor). Held Costs are carried by the firm and reimbursed later. General firm overhead is excluded from both.
The shared cost categories in MDL 3047 cover court reporters and videographers, depositions, document depository operations, generic expert witness fees, fund-related legal and accounting work, translation, banking charges, investigative services, and the time and expense auditor’s invoices. Case-specific experts aren’t reimbursable unless Co-Lead Counsel approves them.
Held costs cover everything else common benefit counsel pays out of pocket. Receipts have to come in monthly, in PDF form, with the expense submission. The court is clear: this isn’t a request-only requirement; receipts go in with every monthly filing.
This is where strong bookkeeping built for law firms pays off. The same discipline used for managing advanced client costs extends naturally to MDL expense tracking.
What Are the Travel, Flight, and Lodging Restrictions in MDL Common Benefit Orders?
MDL travel reimbursement is capped at “reasonable” expenses with specific limits. Domestic flights are limited to refundable coach class. International travel allows business class. Hotels are reimbursed at the average rate of a reasonable business hotel. Alcohol isn’t reimbursable. Miscellaneous cash expenses (tips, luggage handling) are capped at $50 per trip.
The social media MDL order spells each rule out. On airfare, the order limits routine domestic flights to “a refundable, changeable and convenient coach fare seat or its equivalent.” Business class is only allowed for international travel.
Hotel rooms are reimbursed at the average rate of a “reasonable business hotel,” not a luxury property. Meals must be reasonable. The order is direct: “Alcohol expenses are not reimburseable.” Tips and luggage handling are reimbursed up to $50 per trip with itemization. Mileage uses the IRS standard mileage rate.
Partners new to mass tort work often book travel the way they always have, then learn at submission time that the firm is eating the difference. The fix is to put the rules in front of every common benefit traveler before booking, not after.
Non-Travel Expense Caps and the Receipt Rule
Travel isn’t the only place the order sets specific dollar caps. In-house photocopies are capped at $0.20 per black-and-white page and $1.00 per color page. Postage is reimbursed at actual cost. Computerized legal research (Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg) is reimbursed at the actual amount billed to the firm and properly allocated.
The order’s tone on receipts is unusually direct. Receipts are not to be provided “upon request.” Each firm has to provide receipts every month with the expense submission, in PDF form. Credit card receipts or sufficiently detailed monthly statements work.
Description quality matters too. The order rejects line items like “Plane Ticket,” “Filing and Service Fees,” and “Deposition Services” as too vague. Every entry has to explain what, who, why, and how it relates to common benefit work. Vague entries get rejected.
Submission Cadence and the Cost of a Late Filing
Submissions are monthly. In MDL 3047, time and expense reports are due to Co-Lead Counsel and the Auditor (Amy Collins, PC) by the 20th of each month, covering the prior month’s work. If the 20th falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day.
Supplemental expense submissions are allowed within a six-month window if third-party billing delays pushed an item past the regular deadline. Anything older than six months may not be considered. Supplemental time submissions are allowed only for “good cause” with Co-Lead Counsel’s approval.
Co-Lead Counsel reports quarterly summaries to the court six weeks after each quarter ends. The Auditor reviews every entry on a rolling basis and flags non-compliant submissions. Nothing about that process is forgiving of administrative drift.
We’ve built our outsourced CFO support for law firms around proactive deadlines for exactly this reason. Missing a monthly submission window because nobody owned the calendar is the easiest way to leave money on the table.
Build the System Before the First Deposition
Mass tort (MDL) time and expense tracking requirements are detailed, and the dollars are large. A 10% combined assessment on every settlement in a major MDL builds a common benefit fund that can run into the hundreds of millions. The firms that protect their share build the tracking system, the receipt process, and the submission calendar before the first deposition.
If you’ve just taken on common benefit work, or you’re about to, the cost of figuring this out in real time is your fee award. We help law firms set up MDL-compliant time and expense tracking, manage monthly submissions, and protect their law firm realization rate on this kind of work. Schedule a consultation to talk through what your firm needs in place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do contingency-fee trial lawyers really have to track time in an MDL?
Yes. The common benefit fee in an MDL is separate from the firm’s contingency fee on its own client’s recovery. The fee is paid from a court-administered fund and calculated using the lodestar method, which requires verifiable hours. Without contemporaneous time records, the firm can’t claim its share of the fund.
What expenses are excluded from common benefit reimbursement?
General firm overhead is the biggest category. That includes rent, secretarial wages, standard office supplies, and firm-wide software. Alcohol on meal receipts is excluded. Internal firm management time, time organizing case files, and time spent preparing the time submissions themselves are also excluded. Case-specific expert fees are excluded unless Co-Lead Counsel approves them.
Can I fly business class on common benefit travel?
Only for international flights. The Common Benefit Order in MDL 3047 limits domestic airfare reimbursement to a refundable, changeable coach seat. Business class is reimbursable on international travel, with first class available if business isn’t. Most current MDL orders use the same framework.
How often does a firm have to submit time and expense records?
Monthly. The MDL 3047 order sets the deadline at the 20th of each month for the prior month’s work. Supplemental expense submissions are allowed within six months for third-party billing delays. Late time submissions need good cause and Co-Lead Counsel approval, and entries older than six months may not be considered.
What happens if my firm submits time records late or without enough detail?
Vague, late, or non-compliant entries get flagged by the auditor and may be excluded from the common benefit fee calculation. Eligibility requires that time and expenses be for the common benefit, timely submitted, and reasonable. Missing any of those three takes the entry out of the calculation entirely.
