On Saturday, a bunch of very accomplished lawyers filed a very odd motion in the opioid MDL: They asked U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in the Northern District of Ohio to recuse himself from overseeing the litigation.

The request by lawyers from Reed Smith; Williams & Connolly; Covington & Burling; Zuckerman Spaeder; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Locke Lord; Bartlit Beck and Jones Day representing drug wholesalers and retailers (but not the actual manufacturers) comes 20 months after the first hearing in the MDL, and after more than 2,600 documents have been filed in the case. The first bellwether trial is set to start on Oct. 21 in Cleveland.