California Military Earplug Lawyer

3M has indicated that over 99 percent of veterans who are eligible have agreed to participation in an agreement regarding a 3M earplug settlement, and this will probably draw the litigation to a close.

The company announced that over 249,000 out of over 293,000 claims have registered for participation in the settlement, and that over 41,000 claims were dismissed by courts.

3M indicated it will end up paying as much as $6 billion to participants in the settlement agreement.

3M, at one point, had faced almost 300,000 lawsuits alleging that veterans suffered hearing loss due to the company’s defective military earplugs.

A judge has approved use of $1 billion worth of stock to assist in funding settlement payouts regarding hundreds of thousands of claims that military veterans suffered tinnitus and permanent hearing loss after using 3M earplugs. The judge determined that it is fair and appropriate to use stock to partially fund a settlement agreement worth $6 billion.

Scammers are attempting to scam claimants who are participating in a $6 billion 3M earplug settlement which relates to claims of hearing damage. Fraudulent actors have been impersonating employees of the company assigned to administer the earplug settlement, initiating cold calls to settlement claimants, trying to get them to tell them personal information like dates of birth and social security numbers. The FBI has been notified of the scam. Those contacted by scammers are urged to notify plaintiffs’ counsel.

The following per-claimant settlement amounts have been reported regarding the 3M earplug settlement: Those with 40 db or greater hearing loss will receive $24,000, those with from 20 db to 35 db hearing loss will receive $16,000, those with 15 db hearing loss will receive $10,000, those with a recorded tinnitus diagnosis or who sought treatment for tinnitius within two years of using the earplugs will receive $10,000, and those with tinnitius without records corroborating it will receive $5,000. Those who fit multiple criteria will not receive the values of the multiple categories combined – they will receive the value of the more valuable category.

On September 23, 2023, the court issued a settlement update regarding the 3M earplugs, announcing that the process of identifying every potential claimant who may file claims in a $6 billion 3M earplug settlement is now complete. The next phase, which will begin soon, will allow plaintiffs to submit a registration form to recover compensation for tinnitus and hearing loss injuries.

As of September 18, 2023, there are 242,604 plaintiffs who have active cases in the multidistrict litigation regarding the 3M earplugs.

3M is reportedly close to agreeing to a $5.5 billion settlement to resolve over 300,000 claims that its defective earplugs caused service members to suffer from permanent hearing loss. Experts had earlier predicted that the claims could settle for $10 billion.

On July 24, 2023, the Seattle Times reported that an analyst with Barclays, Julian Mitchell, has estimated that 3M may end up owing $8 billion in liability over its earplugs.

In June 2023, a U.S. judge dismissed a bankruptcy filing by Aearo Technologies, a subsidiary of 3M. The bankruptcy filing was an attempt to resolve around 260,000 lawsuits which claim that 3M’s military earplugs causes U.S. service members and veterans to develop hearing loss. The judge ruled that Aearo had too much financial security to warrant bankruptcy protection, that the lawsuits don’t create an impending insolvency risk, and that no evidence exists that a settlement can’t be reached without bankruptcy.

In May 2023, Judge Casey Rodgers ordered the CEO of 3M, Mike Roman, to attend mediation sessions. The sessions are intended to settle lawsuits against 3M over their military earplugs, which are allegedly defective. Rodgers wrote that Roman must attend the media sessions “so that his reports to the board of directors regarding the potential for global resolution of these cases are properly informed by firsthand knowledge.” 3M faces over 200,000 lawsuits over the earplugs.

On May 2, 2023, Judge Casey Rogers ordered negotiations to be reinstated in the MDL regarding 3M earplugs. Discussions had been paused between 3M and plaintiffs in January. The negotiations had been declared at an “impasse.” Plaintiffs filed lawsuits against 3M over combat earplugs produced by 3M subsidiary Aearo Technologies which allegedly caused hearing damage in thousands of veterans. 10 of the 16 bellwether trials on the docket were won by plaintiffs. Following this, 3M tried multiple times to claim bankruptcy, unsuccessfully. 13 plaintiffs have been awarded $265 million in damages. Over 2,500 more claims are awaiting settlement.

In April 2023, a Florida judge was asked by veterans to reinstate mediation with 3M regarding litigation over claims that 3M’s earplugs had a defect and gave service members tinnitus and hearing loss. The veterans said their lawyers’ leadership recently requested a global deal regarding the lawsuits.

In March 2023, Judge Casey Rodgers, who is overseeing the 3M earplugs multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of Florida, referred to the methods 3M used to test their earplugs as “problematic.” Judge Rodgers noted that 3M’s testing excluded the frequencies of 4,000 and 6,000 Hz, the frequencies that noise most commonly affects, and included the frequencies of 500 and 1,000 Hz, frequencies which are not commonly affected by noise.

In February 2023, a group representing over 200,000 combat veterans filed a motion to dismiss a bankruptcy filing by 3M subsidiary Aearo Technologies. The motion argued that 3M is not in financial distress and that Aearo can access 3M funding, making the bankruptcy filing invalid.

In January 2023, Judge Casey Rodgers declared negotiations over a settlement in the 3M earplugs MDL at an impasse, terminating further talks which were ordered by the court. This was seen as an indication that bankruptcy, the MDL and numerous appeals would proceed.

In January 2023, it was reported that 3M has been spending around $4.7 million per week in connection with litigation over its earplugs, and that the litigation might eventually cost the company up to $7 billion.

In December 2022, Judge Casey Rodgers barred 3M from claiming it can’t be held independently responsible for earplugs designed by its subsidiary Aearo Technologies. Rodgers referred to this strategy as “a brazen abuse of the litigation process.”

In August 2022, it was reported that 3M was facing over 230,000 lawsuits over its defective earplugs, and that the 3M earplug cases represented a massive 30 percent of all cases which were pending in federal courts.