3M Combat Earplugs Lawsuit

3M dual-sided combat arms earplugs (CAEv2) were distributed to US armed servicemen and servicewomen. However, these combat earplugs have a serious defect proven to cause hearing injuries. People who wore them are entitled to justice and compensation for their injuries.

• June 1, 2023 - 3M answered questions from judges of the Eleventh Circuit who appeared open to affirming hearing loss verdicts for four veterans and an important, underlying ruling that denied immunity for defects found in 3M's combat earplugs.
• May 1, 2023 - Parties argue whether 3M Earplug unit was in financial distress before bankruptcy.
• April 1, 2023 - 3M is fighting a legal battle over combat earplugs.
• March 1, 2023 - Michael Roman, 3M's CEO, was hit by by a $50 billion stock rout. Roman was the victim of poor timing and poor decisions made by previous 3M CEOs. His tenure was marked by a series of legal problems that resulted from the legacy manufacturing of perfluoroalkyl and military earplugs (PFAS) and the decline in 3M's market value.
• February 19, 2023 - Bellwether trials won more often than before 3M announced in July that the Aearo subsidiary would go bankrupt.
• February 1, 2023 - The 3M military earplugs lawsuit is now being heard in bankruptcy court. A federal judge in Florida, who is overseeing a mountain of earplug litigation against 3M, has stopped efforts to mediate a deal. However, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Indiana continues mediation between 3M and lawyers representing thousands former and current military personnel who claim that 3M's defective earplugs have damaged their hearing.

• January 15, 2023 - Veterans and military service personnel claimed that the combat earplugs sold to the U.S. army by 3M were defective. These cases were consolidated under federal law and brought before a single judge. They are a great example of how important it is for people to have access to courts.
• January 1, 2023 - 3M blocked from shifting earplug liability to unit in bankruptcy. Judge punishes 3M for changing positions regarding liability.
• December 1, 2022 - Kirkland wins court approval to advise 3M Earplug Unit Bankruptcy. A bankruptcy judge ruled that 3M and its Aearo unit are in the same interests and Kirkland's representation does not cause conflict.
• October 1, 2022 - 3M's bankruptcy setback deepens earplug litigation troubles. The corporation's plan for resolving the largest single litigation in U.S. history in bankruptcy court went away from the plan where other corporate defendants have succeeded.
• September 1, 2022 - 3M appeals bankruptcy court refusal to end 230,000 earplug lawsuits.
• August 14, 2022 - 3M Earplug Judge M. Casey Rodgers sympathetic to veterans called to proceed.
• August 1, 2022 - 3M who is facing thousands of lawsuits is creating a $1 billion trust for U.S. service members who say its earplugs did not protect them from hearing loss.
• July 26, 2022 - 3M has announced that the company takes action to efficiently and equitably resolve litigation related to the 3M defective combat earplugs.
• July 13, 2022 - A federal court in Florida said that 3M should not have announced its intention to seek new trials in nine combat earplug cases ahead of time.
• July 1, 2022 - 3M faces potentially $7.63 billions in lawsuits over earplugs. 3M to begin court-ordered settlement talks over military earplugs, following lawsuits by thousands of soldiers.
• June 5, 2022 - A federal jury in FL ruled 3M has to pay $77.5 million to James Beal, an army veteran whose lawsuit alleged the 3M’s faulty earplugs caused hearing loss and ringing in his ears.
• June 1, 2022 - Around 290,000 U.S. soldiers are suing 3M over defective earplugs.
• May 2, 2022 - 3M has been convicted of $2.2 million in a legal battle over defective earplugs it made for the U.S. Military. The U.S. District Court in northern Florida ruled Friday in favor Jonathon Vaughn. Jonathon Vaughn was a U.S. Army veteran who served from 2006 to 2010. Vaughn, a Southside resident, claimed his hearing loss and tinnitus were caused by 3M's Combat Arms CAEv2 Earplugs.
• May 1, 2022 - A federal jury in Pensacola, Florida ruled in favor of 3M in the lawsuit of Denise Kelley (36-year-old from California, who had served 10 years in U.S. Army) . Kelley claimed that she was a victim of defective 3M earplugs that have caused her hearing loss and tinnitus.
• April 1, 2022 - Two army veterans awarder $58 Million: Jurors in Pensacola, FL, awarded $50 million to Luke Vilsmeyer, a U.S. Army veteran who suffered permanent hearing loss and severe tinnitus. Tallahassee jury awarded $8 million in compensatory damages to Steven Wilkerson who suffered tinnitus and hearing loss.
• March 1, 2022 - 3M adds yet another legal concern to its list of headaches. The conglomerate is facing a growing battle over the sale of earplugs to the U.S military.
• February 23, 2022 - A federal court in Florida decided that 3M earplug scientist must testify in 5 upcoming trials. This is despite the fact that the 3M scientist has already testified extensively.
• February 6, 2022 - Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation published: Motions in Previously Centralized MDLs - 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation (MDL-2885).
• January 28, 2022 - 2 Army Soldiers Awarded $110 Million in 3M Earplug Lawsuit - A federal jury awarded $110 million to two U.S. Army soldiers who said they had hearing damage because of earplugs produced by the multinational manufacturer 3M.
• January 1, 2022 - 7 federal judges designated by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court will discuss the MDL 2885 lawsuits (3M Earplugs Lawsuit).
• December 10, 2021 - Jurors in Tallahassee, FL awarded $22.5 million to former U.S. Army soldier, Theodore Elwood Finley who alleged that combat earplugs manufactured by 3M caused him to suffer Tinnitus & hearing loss.
• December 1, 2021 - 3M loses bid to test earplug plaintiff for genetic hearing loss after U.S. Judge Gary Jones in Pensacola, FL held that there was no basis for 3M's request for the test - that 2 cousins of the plaintiff Steven Wilkerson's were born deaf.
• November 24, 2021 - 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation - December 2, 2021, hearing session order.
• November 15, 2021 - Jury in Tallahassee, FL Federal Court awarded Guillermo Camarillorazo $13 Million on a 3M earplug lawsuit. $816,395 in compensatory and $12.25 million in punitive damages.
• November 1, 2021 - M. Casey Rodgers (Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida) MDL-2885 - 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation
• October 15, 2021 - United States Courts Opinions - 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation
• October 2, 2021 - 3M will pay $8.2 million to Brandon Adkins, a former U.S. Army soldier after finding the 3M earplugs had a design defect and 3M did not provide adequate safety warnings.
• September 24, 2021 - U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers has scheduled another bellwether trials to start at September 20, 2021 and October 18, 2021, with a possible consolidated trial of 3 plaintiffs in January 2022.
• Biggest 3M Payout: $9.1 Million to settle False Claims case with US Government
• 3M Earplug Lawsuit Status: Number of Cases is more than 139,693 Claimants as of March 2020
• Earplug Introduction Date: 2003
• Intended Use: Hearing protection against loud and high-pitched noises from combat arms
• Side-Effects: Hearing Loss & Tinnitus
• 3M loses third trial in huge military earplug mass tort results in $1.7 million against 3M
• October 2020 - A Federal Judge in Florida said the Department of Defense gave good reasons to keep an Army Officer from sitting for a deposition relating to the 3M earplug case.
• September 2020 - The number of claimants joining the case against 3M has continued to rise, with over 200,000 people now saying that the Combat Arms earplugs were defective. As such, it has become one of the biggest mass tort cases in American legal history, and there is potential for it to grow even more due to the large number of U.S military personnel who wore the earplugs when on duty during the period of 2003-2015.
• August 2020 - It is predicted that bellwether trials could start for the 3M defective earplug case in the spring of 2021. A bellwether trial, as the name suggests, is like a test case, involving a plaintiff with a claim seen as typical of the large group. Such a trial could provide a blueprint for future cases and potential payouts for 3M earplug damage.
• July 2020 - A federal judge ruled that 3M is not entitled to Governmental immunity. The company claimed that it had the right to immunity due to being a government contractor. The Judge refused to toss out the lawsuits on this basis, however, pointing out that 3M did not have a contract with the U.S military. This is an important legal distinction, and the U.S military would have had to have been involved in the design of the earplugs, which it wasn’t, for 3M to claim government immunity.
• April 2020 - After the unsealing of documents in the 3M case in April 2020, it emerged that the company presented testing results that were conducted before the earplugs were shortened to fit into a carrying case.

To date, the only settlement amount from 3M has been the $9.1 million compensation paid to the Federal Government in July 2018. This was after a whistleblower within 3M alerted the Federal Government to the defective nature of the earplugs. However, more US troops and veterans are pursuing legal action against 3M, and the case is expected to go to trial in 2021. Because the case has been combined into a mass tort case, plaintiffs can expect settlements to be based on individual circumstances rather than a fixed sum for all combat troops injured by 3M defective earplugs. The biggest case against 3M is now pending in a Federal Court in Florida and includes more than 139,653 individual cases against the company that have been combined.

The 3M lawsuit settlement amounts will undoubtedly continue to be a major financial headache for the company as the 3M defective earplugs case is turning into one the biggest mass tort suits in history with many more military personnel expected to join. It’s difficult to work out the 3M earplug lawsuit settlement amounts per person. Mass tort cases are one where individual payouts are based on the particular circumstances of each claimant. 

Hearing loss is but one facet of the damage caused by defective earplugs, and vets can also experience issues like depression linked to hearing problems. In short, each claimant will face unique issues, and that will have to be factored in when determining average payouts for 3M earplugs cases. 

It is possible, of course, that 3M may decide to settle the case if it believes that going to trial will be ultimately too expensive. In that scenario, the 3M earplug lawsuit average payout per person would depend upon the settlement sum.

At the moment, there is not enough precedence to estimate what that settlement figure would be, but, given the number of military personnel with hearing issues (and other issues linked to their hearing problems) after using 3M Combat Arms, it would likely run into millions of dollars. 

Judge Jeffrey Graham U.S. bankruptcy judge allowed Kirkland & Ellis (Novenber 10, 2022) to continue representing bankrupt 3M subsidiary Aearo Technologies. Judge Graham rejected calls to disqualify Aearo Technologies because it had defended 3M in a huge litigation over allegedly defective.

The 3M combat earplugs were designed to prevent hearing damage. They were used by the US Armed Forces and given to service members who were regularly subjected to noisy conditions in both training and combat conditions.

However, the product itself had fitting problems. Because the earplugs were too short to fill the ear canal properly, there wasn’t a proper seal. To work effectively, the earplugs need a 100% seal to block out the noise.

The result was damage to the inner ear and sensitive hairs of affected service members. Moreover, due to their defect, many users didn’t even realize they weren’t being properly protected at the time.

These 3M earplugs not only failed to prevent hearing damage but are responsible for hearing loss and painful tinnitus many service members and veterans suffer from.As a consequence, thousands of US troops and veterans are suing a government contractor, 3M,for supplying them with faulty defective earplugs during military tours of places like Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 to 2015. 

Many veterans suffer hearing problems after exposure to dangerous levels of noise, which is common in combat missions. However, 3M is accused of providing the military with defective Combat Arms earplugs and for covering up knowledge of the faulty equipment that was supposed to protect troops’ ears.

In light of that, many members and former members of the US Armed Forces have been in contact with 3M earplug lawsuit attorneys and have begun bringing personal injury claims against 3M after suffering ear problems.

At the heart of the 3M faulty earplug lawsuit is the charge that the company knew its products, called 3M Combat Arms Hear-Through Earplugs, were not the right fit for troops’ ears, and that the earplugs could loosen in a way not known to the wearer that would render them ineffective. 3M settled a lawsuit with the Federal Government a couple of years ago, but many individual military personnel are contemplating joining the lawsuit against 3M if they believe they have suffered hearing loss or tinnitus after using the company’s earplugs while on duty. Currently 3m denies any wrongdoing on their part.

Ear damage is one of the most common injuries suffered by US military veterans. In fact, the Hearing Health Foundation cites tinnitus, ringing in the ear, and hearing loss as the two most common health complaints among veterans. Furthermore, the Military Health Systems has stated that hearing issues are the main disability in the veteran community Moreover, studies have linked hearing problems with other issues like depression and anxiety.

To find a good lawyer to represent your case it is important to first fill out the free evaluation form to make sure you have the necessary requirements to qualify for the case.  Once your case has been evaluated if you have the necessary qualifications we will be in contact with you to explain the process to you and connect you with the most experienced 3M lawsuit lawyers to handle your case.