Native American tribes got a step closer to gaining their own multi-district litigation track in a case involving 46 lawsuits filed by local governments impacted by the opioid crisis, including the Cherokee Nation, the Navajo Nation and the Winnebago Tribe.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio has assigned a dispute resolution specialist with experience in mediation to handle the MDL.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster said the specialist will work on “resolving a protocol for the coordination of depositions” between the related state and federal cases and work with the tribes to develop a separate MDL track.