A federal judge has issued an order that could result in about $550 million in common benefit fees and expenses to plaintiffs lawyers in the transvaginal mesh litigation, setting the stage for a possible fight over who gets what.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin of the Southern District of West Virginia, who is overseeing seven multidistrict litigation proceedings that at one point surpassed 100,000 lawsuits, granted a request from a fee and cost committee that defendants hold back five percent of all settlements and judgments to pay common benefit counsel. He rejected three objections from law firms including Philadelphia’s Kline & Specter, which had sought to halve that request, calling the mesh settlements “puny” in comparison to the jury verdicts.