3M will now be able to present certain arguments in the Aearo bankruptcy without the risk of being held in contempt of court by Judge Rodgers. Day 6 of the trial featured a series of short video deposition clips and testimony from the plaintiffs wife, Heather Beal, and several other fact witnesses, including friends or family members of Mr. Beal. But these are big trials in this litigation. Sloan is another Army vet who is alleging that the Combat Arms earplugs failed to protect him resulting in both hearing loss and tinnitus. January 2022: Biggest Plaintiffs' Award Yet. Meanwhile, the parties have agreed to continue Wave 3 discovery deadlines within the MDL. The missing paperwork that prompted most dismissals was the plaintiffs military service record (DD214). It means 3Ms bankruptcy gambit failed as I predicted from the beginning. Is the 3M Earplug Lawsuit Worth It? Data day is often as it is in this case facilitated by a third-party vendor who can assist with managing the data and facilitating the review process. It is. The logistics of actually taking these cases to trial are hard to imagine. 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. However, the most recent summary judgment motion has a much better chance of success. This victory for 3M follows its biggest loss in the earplug bellwether trials. This ruling theoretically renders the Aearo bankruptcy appeal to the 3rd Circuit moot, as the MDL plaintiffs are now free to go after 3M separately. These data reinforce the need for parties to work together to reach a reasonable resolution, based in data and scientific evidence, that does right by veterans entitled to compensation and puts an end to this litigation, Charles Mullin, a claims valuation expert working for Aearo, said in a 3M news statement. Need an attorney for the 3M Earplug Lawsuit? This is good news for 3M. The reason for the delay is not related to the litigation. All Rights Reserved. There will be a day or reckoning. The earplugs were never recalled, but 3M stopped making them in 2015. Just how likely is a 3M earplug settlement? 3M is convinced that not all of these plaintiffs have valid claims. Dr. Crawford is an ENT doctor who spent 24 years in the Army where he specialized in hearing protection. Aearo will ask the bankruptcy court to pause the litigation. Wilkerson was seeking summary judgment on 3Ms 5 affirmative defenses (learned intermediary, superseding cause, failure to mitigate, open and obvious danger, and statute of limitations defense), all of which were governed by Wisconsin law. February 9, 2022, 3M Earplug Bellwether Trial Update: The $110 million verdict in the Sloan/Wayman trial was the final case in bellwether trial group C. After a pause in February, trials will begin in group D starting on Monday, March 14, 2022, in Tallahassee. 3M filed a motion seeking to force all these plaintiffs to immediately pay their filing fees or have their case dismissed. October 2, 2022 Update: The next round of settlement talks will be tomorrow. 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. Need an attorney for the 3M Earplug Lawsuit? But if there is a settlement, it will be tough to find a lawyer after a settlement is reached. 3M hid design flaws and doctored test results, while also failing to provide proper instructions on how . { My lawyer said this is a stall tactic and will not work in the end. Preparing this many cases is a logistical nightmare. But he implied that the mediation was aimed at resolving the bankruptcy proceeding, rather than an effort to negotiate a global settlement in the MDL. The rejection of 3Ms bankruptcy gambit is on appeal to the Seventh Circuit. Is this naked speculation? What does this mean? March 1, 2023 Update: 3M today said that most of the 175,000 plaintiffs in the Combat Arms earplugs lawsuits had normal hearing, according to U.S. Department of Defense records. Our lawyers believe there could be a global settlement in 2023. So that is an issue that plaintiffs lawyers have to deal with in these cases. The likelihood of 3M succeeding with the statute of limitations defense now or later down the line is almost zero, so this decision is almost a complete victory for Wilkerson. But he noted that a conflict could arise in the future and that K&E was navigating a minefield.. Which is a good thing for getting these claims settled for the real victims. The data was included in an estimation motion filed by Aearo Technologies, the 3M unit that made the earplugs, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis. On Friday, 3M Earplugs MDL Judge Casey Rodgers issued an Order requiring the parties to participate in settlement mediation. It is all upside for you. But it is just not likely this weekend. Day 1 of the Kelley trial saw the jury selected by midday and opening statements for both sides. Im sorry for all the rhetorical questions. This information is included in Aearo's estimation motion filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis. Berger is a former 3M scientist and division head (now retired) who was part of the team that originally designed and developed the Combat Arms Earplugs. Monday was a day off from the MLK holiday. This award included $816,395 in compensatory damages which broke down as follows: Past Pain & Suffering = $192,000, Future Pain & Suffering = $408,000, Future Loss of Earnings = $110,645, Future Medical Care = $105,750. The Order concludes by imposing full liability for the earplug claims on 3M and barring it from attempting to shift liability to Aearo. This Vanderbilt doctor has testified before in this litigation. Kevin Rhodes, 3Ms Chief Legal Affairs Officer, gave a somewhat delusional presentation at the Conference last Wednesday on the status of the earplug lawsuits. Thousands of veterans and current military service members may be entitled to receive financial compensation in the 3M earplug lawsuit for hearing loss and tinnitus caused by defective earplugs. February 4, 2023 Update: Plaintiffs lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the Aearo bankruptcy petition after an appellate court dismissed a similar bankruptcy involving Johnson & Johnson in the talc powder litigation. Before we get to the meat of the 3M Combat Arms earplug lawsuits, our attorneys update you with the latest news in the 3M earplug litigation. Then at 11:00 a.m., the plaintiff, Ronald Sloan, took the stand to tell his story. So when will the 3M earplug lawsuit settle? Aearo, in a filing this week, said an analysis of Defense Department audiometric data shows the vast majority of earplug plaintiffs did not suffer hearing loss under the standards of the American Medical Association (AMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). May 10, 2022 Update: Yesterday marked the beginning of the end of the 3M earplug lawsuit bellwether trials. But settlement talks will continue in the next two weeks, and Judge Rodgers is encouraged by the progress made during the settlement negotiations. In one of the largest U.S. mass torts, 3M faces over 200,000 lawsuits in U.S. District Court in northern Florida. So the average trial a few had multiple plaintiffs results in an average payout of $30 million per trial. 3M could face billions of dollars in liabilities for the remaining earplug suits. Judge Rodgers stated that a perfectly solvent defendant such as 3M should not be entitled to bankruptcy protection simply because the MDL is not going the way it wants. That is, unfortunately, not how typical mass tort settlements work. This creates a problem not only for those more seriously injured but also for 3M. May 4, 2022: Yesterday, the 3M earplug MDL judge issued a new Case Management Order (CMO # 44) ordering 20,197 earplug lawsuits in the MDL to be moved from the administrative docket onto the active docket. In other words, 3M has been barred from pursuing its strategy to force the earplug claims into bankruptcy. So 3M is putting all of its eggs in the basket of a successful bankruptcy appeal and winning the successor liability appeal of the sanctions imposed by Judge Rodgers. Camarillorazo had much stronger medical evidence to support his alleged hearing loss and tinnitus. She also said she would allow an immediate appeal of her successor liability ruling, a strong signal she may rule for the plaintiffs. Our lawyers are handling 3M earplug lawsuits in all 50 states. A trial scheduled for next month was dismissed, because the veteran's injury was "unrelated to noise-induced. has not baked the cost of a 3M earplug settlement into 3Ms stock price. I think this is one point on which our 3M earplug lawyer and 3M have common ground. This is the largest MDL in history. Each trial will involve large blocks of consolidated plaintiffs. $110 million. It asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana to deny Aearos choice of Kirkland as its bankruptcy lawyers. Last week, the MDL judge granted a motion filed by Beal which effectively blocks 3Ms defense team from presenting their contributory negligence and other affirmative defenses at trial. It is easy to forget that a sample size of one for an MDL class action of this size. Posted on July 15, 2021 in Class Actions, Consumer Law . The 6 plaintiffs who won their cases have been awarded damages totaling $29,429,925. This is because 3M did not give precise specifications or even have a real contract with the military to provide these earplugs. August 25, 2022 Update: As of 9:07 a.m. no ruling from Judge Graham. Just last week the MDL Judge held a data day to review the DOD medical data. Now retired, he was the former head of the 3M Personal Safety Division and an audiology scientist. The battleground is the government contractor defense our earplug lawyers talked about from Day 1 of this litigation. The judge in the earplugs MDL, Casey Rodgers, pushed back on 3M and its lawyers at a hearing on Wednesday. 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. What is Data Day? July 25, 2022: The week after the mandatory settlement mediation ordered by MDL Judge Casey Rodgers, the parties filed motions to gear up for the next massive wave of trials. You wont hear me speak up for 3m much, right? October 25, 2022 Update: 3M asked Judge Rodgers permission to file another motion on the successor liability motion for summary judgment plaintiffs lawyers filed in the Wave 1 cases. 3M has been wearing rose-colored glasses from Day 1 of this litigation. In the meantime, however, the MDL judge has issued a general stay of all events and deadlines in the MDL. November 1, 2022 Update: Judge Rodgers said last week that monthly settlement talks must resume. The questions we got most are. April 29, 2022 Update #2: A Florida jury awarded U.S. Army veteran Jonathan Vaughn $2.2 million. But there are no guarantees. For Camp Lejeune cases that get filed as civil lawsuits, the bill will cap attorney's fees at 33%. My best guess and it is a guess is that the 3M earplug claims will settle this year but not before Wilkerson. To date, no plaintiff has settled a 3M earplug lawsuit. This is the second time the earplug plaintiffs have asked the MDL Judge for a ruling that would preempt 3Ms bankruptcy strategy. May 20, 2022: $77.5 Million Verdict! Our 3M earplug lawsuit attorneys get calls and online inquiries about this litigation every single day. Settle these cases or start the next wave of trials next month beginning with David Georges trial that could lead down a path where 3M has to declare a very different kind of bankruptcy this time. January 7, 2023 Update: 3M reports spending $450 million in attorneys fees defending the 3M earplug lawsuit. The metric favored by 3M would result in a very large percentage of plaintiffs (as high as 85%) being classified as having no injury and excluded from any settlement. So they must be contending that they believe 3M will pay more through the bankruptcy process, but it is necessary because it is fairer. If granted, this would potentially pave the way for Aearo to be simply dismissed as a defendant in the MDL, thereby side-stepping its recent bankruptcy. 3M chooses its own definitions and its own legal standards. The average amount of compensatory damages awarded to the 6 successful plaintiffs is $1,216,322, but this average is skewed by the Atkins case in which all $8.2 million in damages were compensatory. Berger was in the middle of every key piece of the relevant facts. The first two days of the trial featured nearly eight hours of testimony from the plaintiffs leading expert witness, bioacoustics engineer Richard McKinley. 2885) forward for pretrial proceedings. But this is the depressing part of the judges order: Hopefully as the MDL, the bankruptcy, and the various appeals proceed, all of which undoubtedly will take years to run their course, the intransigence on both sides will give way to a genuine commitment to negotiate reasonably and meaningful compromises on both sides so that a just and mutually acceptable resolution of these matters may be achieved.. Judge Rodgers denied that motion. The fourth bellwether trial ended with a verdict in favor of Army veteran Brandon Adkins, who sought to link his hearing loss and tinnitus to use of 3M's earplugs. But it is also true that there is no cost to bring a claim and no risk. One big issue no one can answer: how many truly viable 3M lawsuits are there? The strategy has been to kick the can down the road. June 15, 2022 Update: Settlement conference in 3M lawsuit set for July 15, 2022. It thinks it gets to define whether someone suffers from a hearing injury. Yesterday, Judge Rodgers refused to grant 3M permission to file a sur-reply. The story which is behind a paywall, of course offers a general overview of the earplug lawsuits against 3M and an explanation of how the massive size of the litigation could end up costing 3M billions in liabilities.
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