3M will now be free to argue issues in the Aero bankruptcy that have already been ruled on in the MDL. Because, in the end, 3M bought a company that made an awful product that hurt people that served our country. The jury still awarded $2.2 million. This is a huge deal because it means that the pending appeal in the Aearo bankruptcy is basically meaningless. On Wednesday, the plaintiffs presented the testimony of Elliott Berger (via Zoom video call). Plaintiff will have 35 hours to present their case with the remaining 29 hours going to the defense. May 20, 2022 Update: Good golly! But a settlement of this magnitude will be a complex endeavor. But new lawsuits are not. We will likely find out on August 18, 2022, at the bankruptcy hearing. December 23, 2022 Update: The MDL Judge has imposed a significant sanction on 3M blocking it from pursuing the Aearo bankruptcy. We do not think the stock market still! Recently, however, a group of earplug plaintiffs filed a motion seeking to partially lift that stay concerning all cases alleging injuries occurring after 3M acquired Aearo in 2008. The 6th bellwether trial ended in a defense verdict in favor of 3M. There will soon be 300,000 lawsuits filed. This page provides the latest news and updates on the 3M class action lawsuit for victims. Plaintiffs claim the earplugs were defective, causing them hearing loss and tinnitus. Is The 3m Earplug Lawsuit Worth It - StaySafeDiary Now is the moment for 3M to step up and offer veterans reasonable 3M earplug settlement amounts. The next bellwether trial begins today in the case of Denise Kelley. Retired judge Mark Falk and veteran settlement negotiator Ellen Reisman will assist Ms. Ellis. In April 2019, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation moved 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. Is The 3M Earplug Lawsuit Worth It? Over the last 30 days, another 2,604 new earplug cases were added to the MDL, bringing the current pending case count to 265,092, At its peak, the MDL was just under 300,000. Why? If 3M is allowed to move forward with the bankruptcy, the current earplug lawsuits will be automatically stayed and the current plaintiffs will become creditors. The bankruptcy court will appoint a plaintiffs lawyer committee to negotiate with 3M on a global settlement of all claims. McKinley has testified in all the previous bellwether trials, although this is the longest time he has spent on the stand. Wayman is an Army veteran who is claiming that 3Ms defective earplugs caused him to develop tinnitus which has made his PTSD condition worse. The only caveat is that 3M will now file an immediate appeal of this new ruling, and the MDL cases will be stayed pending the outcome of that appeal. Judge orders thousands of 3M earplug cases move closer to trials October 5, 2022 Update: No 3M earplug settlement remains. He claims this number is supported by experts, which is truly insanity. Getting this class action down to the soldiers who were truly harmed will advance an earplug settlement. In one of the largest U.S. mass torts, 3M faces over 200,000 lawsuits in U.S. District Court in northern Florida. Judge Rodgers stopped short of granting summary judgment on the statute of limitations defense and deferred ruling on that issue until the relevant facts have been presented at trial. These veterans can now sue 3M and demand financial compensation. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. Veterans agree. Both Fallon and Crawford also spent over 20 years in the Army. The message is clear: if you do not want to offer reasonable settlement amounts, you better gear up for a massive wave of additional trials next year. There is also reason to be pessimistic. But, usually, follow the money, right? Most of the opening 2 days of the trial were devoted to the testimony of bioacoustics engineer Richard McKinley. January 21, 2023 Update: Mediators Christopher Sontchi and Randi Ellis updated the bankruptcy court in Indiana that they will have a settlement mediation in early February.. Berger was one of the people directly involved in the original design and testing of the 3M earplugs at issue in the lawsuits and he has been a critical witness in all of the cases. The final 3M earplug bellwether trial concluded this afternoon and the result was the most significant amount awarded to a single plaintiff. The question most people reading this have is will the 3M earplug class action reach a settlement before this trial? Our lawyers also provide some excellent graphs and charts of how these lawsuits are going that we have updated in March 2023 to reflect the latest 3M verdict, failed effort by 3M to hide behind a bankruptcy court, and new settlement talks in 2023. So everyone can win here. We are contingency fee lawyers. ", As for how many 3M trials are left the trials will go on and on until there is a global settlement deal. We need to prove the basic elements of the claim and being in the military is one of those basic elements. If the best cases do not receive settlement offers commensurate with the harm done to them, those plaintiffs will just reject the settlement amounts offered and opt to go to trial. The earplug bellwether trials so far have been two weeks each and they only involved one plaintiff in all but two trials. 3M Earplug Lawsuit Update 2022 and Top 10 FAQs The law firm of White & Case was also brought in to help advise 3M on the chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding for its subsidiary, Aearo Technologies. Judge Rodgers denied that motion. Blog Home. 3M has appealed Grahams decision, while plaintiffs have asked Graham to dismiss the Aearo bankruptcy. There have now been 7 rounds of bellwether trials involving 9 plaintiffs in the 3M earplugs litigation. Most of those soldiers were not protected by the defective earplugs and suffered permanent hearing loss. 3M has filed similar motions in all of the previous bellwether trials and all of them have been denied. Following the bankruptcy ruling, 3M is facing enormous external pressure from investors and financial analysts who tell them they have no choice but to capitulate by dropping all of the legal gamesmanship and offer reasonable settlement amounts to veterans who have suffered from these defective earplugs. Meanwhile, the parties have agreed to continue Wave 3 discovery deadlines within the MDL. (Anthony Souffle, Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS). Under the metric endorsed by 3M, nearly 85% of the plaintiffs have no evidence of hearing loss and should be excluded from any settlement. They quite literally worked as hard as if not harder than the doctors to save our lives. June 1, 2022 Update: MDL Judge Casey Rodgers reduced the $55 million verdict awarded to William Wayman, one of the two plaintiffs in the 11th bellwether trial that resulted in a blockbuster $110 million verdict. On Day 4 of the trial, the plaintiff James Beal took the stand in the morning. July 11, 2022: The one thing we do not want to do in a 3M earplug settlement is minimize the differences between the strength of the claims in the final settlement amounts. August 11, 2022 Update: Judge Rodgers heard arguments today from veterans that Judge Rodgers should not allow a bankruptcy court the ability to stay the 3M earplug litigation. Rodgers used 3Ms public statements in support of the bankruptcy plan as justification for the settlement mediation redo. March 28, 2022 Update: The action continues in the 3M litigation. February 27, 2023 Update: The federal government is with us. The most shocking aspect of the Camarillorazo verdict was the fact that the jury found that 3M acted with fraud, malice, or gross negligence and awarded $12,245,925 in punitive damages. That motion has to scare lawyers on both sides. by Roy D. Oppenheim. His reasons for the denial were articulated by the Judge from the bench during the trial. Is the 3M Earplug Lawsuit Worth It? But that same law firm represents 3M an apparent conflict. But is the number 75% or 90%? March 22, 2022 Update: Plaintiff Steven Wilkerson closed his case yesterday and 3M immediately filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law. A Tallahassee jury awarded the plaintiff $13.1 million in damages. There are two sides to this coin. October 3, 2022 Update: 3M spokesman Sean Lynch: 3M hopes that the parties and their attorneys will come together to negotiate a prompt resolution to this matter so that those veterans with eligible claims can be compensated sooner.. The Beal trial will be conducted by Judge Robin Rosenberg. The direct examination of Sloan lasted until 2:00 pm with a break for lunch. The claimants in this MDL are all veterans who have fought and sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country's honor. Scores of lawsuits filed by service members soon followed. But it cant muster the energy even to pretend. Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. September 20, 2022 Update: No global settlement. But it is very encouraging news that a settlement could be in the works. Day 1 of the Kelley trial saw the jury selected by midday and opening statements for both sides. Berger was directly involved in the original product design and testing of the Combat Arms earplugs. Call 954-384-6114. Not mentioned: it has little chance of success. But this might get us closer to a global settlement of the earplug lawsuits. Earplug victims are frustrated with the pace of settlement. Even soldier plaintiffs Ive talked to believe a percentage of the soldiers that applied administratively for the 3M lawsuit do not have legitimate claims. Sloans testimony and the jurys reaction to him will have a huge impact on the outcome of the case. It is just a question of how much money 3M will pay to settle these claims. This 3M lawsuit may go to the jury as early as tomorrow. Kelley will be the second female bellwether plaintiff. We summarize where we today in this litigation overview of the 3M litigation. For its part, 3M says it is committed to the settlement process in bankruptcy court. But Judge Rodgers has been steadfast about dismissing claims that are not viable. The summary judgment motion is aimed at preemptively blocking any continuing hope 3M may have of forcing the MDL lawsuits to be resolved in bankruptcy. It did not begin well. LaBorde is a doctor of audiology and head of the Hearing Center MCC in Pensacola with expertise in hearing aid technology. 3M has already set aside $1.2 billion to fund the proposed bankruptcy trust for the settlement of the earplug claims. A 2016 lawsuit filed by a whistleblower alleged that 3M had violated the False Claims Act by selling to the Defense Logistics Agency earplugs with a known design defect that, in the Department of Justice's words, "hampered the effectiveness" of the device. The judge in the earplugs MDL, Casey Rodgers, harshly rebuked 3M and its lawyers at a hearing on Wednesday. This article will dive into several aspects of the 3M lawsuit. 3M Earplug Lawsuit | March 2023 Update March 3, 2023 Update: Quote from plaintiffs lawyers in Bloomberg article on the 3Ms estimation motion: There is simply no route for 3M to resolve this litigation if it continues to take the offensive and impractical position that 90 percent of service members and veterans are liars with worthless claims.. Our law firm handles 3M earplug lawsuits throughout the country. A reasonable time frame to expect a result is about 6 months or more. This Vanderbilt doctor has testified before in this litigation. If we track wins and losses by individual plaintiffs, we get a more accurate picture of where things stand. The bright spotlight of the WSJ story could end that. From there, he assumes the bankruptcy ruling will get overturned. The 3M earplug lawsuit will settle when 3M finally realizes that it cannot keep deferring the resolution of this litigation. Again, veterans do not care if settlement talks occur, whether they are in bankruptcy court or the possibly soon-to-be dismissed bankruptcy action. "@type": "FAQPage", Judge Rodgers denied the previous motion because it was premature. Judge Rodgers explained that both sides are entrenched in their respective data metrics and that this has been the primary roadblock to getting a global settlement done. The rejection of 3Ms bankruptcy gambit is on appeal to the Seventh Circuit. If you have a potential 3M earplug lawsuit and have not brought a claim, call a lawyer. "How do I qualify for a 3M earplug lawsuit?" Veterans care about fair compensation. Personal injury lawyers handling serious personal injury truck and auto accident, medical malpractice and products liability cases throughout the United States. At 3:00 the jury submitted a question to the judge. The MDL judge yesterday ordered over 20,000 lawsuits parked on the administrative docket transferred to the active docket within 60 days. At the same time, the plaintiffs brief in response to 3Ms appeal is due in the 11th Circuit early next month. Progress toward an earplug settlement is probably likely. Still, Judge Rodges deemed the mediation worthwhile and productive The court-appointed mediator is scheduling another mediation session within the next 14 days. So now they fit. Meanwhile, the huge verdict is bringing in more new soldiers who otherwise may have never heard of the claims. The judge granted the motion to stay as to a portion of the injunction but denied 3Ms effort to stay the injunction entirety. August 27, 2022: We have a ruling. February 23, 2023 Update: The 3M data day presentation took place this morning as scheduled. September 19, 2022 Update: There was no settlement from the settlement talks last week. A ruling on this key issue wont happen until at least August 18, 2022. That might be a problem for 3M. Fallon holds a doctorate in audiology and works for 3M as a Technical Senior Service Specialist. Can you see why 3M wanted to hide from juries in bankruptcy court? Corporations taking responsibility is a profitable path. September 7, 2022 Update:After being forced back to another mediation following the rejection of its questionable bankruptcy strategy, 3M is now seeking to have its puppet subsidiary take part in the mediation and involve the bankruptcy judge in that mediation. This works out to an average of $4.9 million per plaintiff. "mainEntity": [ Call us at 800-553-8082 or get afree online consultation. This is encouraging news. Posted on November 05, 2021 in Class Actions . The transcript passed on to us by a veteran represented by another law firm is depressing. 3M Earplug Lawsuit Update! March 29, 2022 Update: 3M earplug trials follow a typical pattern, and this new lawsuit to go to trial fits easily in that pattern. A federal jury on Thursday awarded $110 million to two U.S. Army veterans who said they had hearing damage because of combat earplugs produced by the . Call 954-384-6114. The settlement made it clear that the United States military takes its soldiers' safety seriously. The supplier warned the U.S. of the danger associated with the equipment that only the supplier knew of. There is a real possibility this bankruptcy which drove 3Ms stock price through the roof when it was announced is much ado about nothing. from around the world. The bankruptcy judge was not persuaded. By 5:30 the jury had decided that Palanki failed to prove any of his claims against 3M and returned a defense verdict.