That decision will significantly impact the course of the litigation moving forward and could potentially render the appeal in 3Ms controversial bankruptcy gambit essentially moot. The one thing that always stood out as the most hypocritical part of the bankruptcy effort was 3Ms effort to reduce the punitive damage award in Wayman because there were not six defendants but just one because 3M owns and controls 100% of the other five named defendants.. 3M has filed similar motions in all of the previous bellwether trials and all of them have been denied. The overriding takeaway from the presentation was that 3M and the plaintiff leadership have adopted vastly different interpretations of the injury data based on various metrics. March 27, 2022 Update: In a historical weekend in the 3M earplug litigation, the Wilkerson jury came back yesterday with an $8 million verdict. This is a huge deal because it means that the pending appeal in the Aearo bankruptcy is basically meaningless. MDL Judge Casey Rogers has given 3M a deadline of December 5th to file a response. There is often turmoil on losing teams. The Motion seeks to have the Aearo Chapter 11 bankruptcy immediately dismissed based on the grounds outlined in the recent ruling by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in the talc bankruptcy initiated by J&J. So the reckoning is already here. The filing this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court is the latest turn in the legal war between 3M and over 200,000 veterans and current service members over 3Ms Combat Arms CAEv2, which were once standard military issue. I am so grateful that I was lucky to pick Miller & Zois. It is also a distraction from the path to a fair settlement that is in everyones interest. The company admitted, however, that the earplugs were defective and did nothing to protect soldiers from significant hearing loss, subjecting them to the risk of deafness. We talked to many soldiers over the weekend about the 3M earplug lawsuit. We fully expect the same result in this case. Aearo and 3M remain focused on reaching an efficient, equitable, and expeditious . They would not argue that. Many veterans who call us wonder if the 3M cases are legit or if this is some scam. Settlement talks without imminent trial dates will be spinning wheels with 3M. After the District Court trials, 3M placed the Aearo subsidiary in Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indiana. The jury still awarded $2.2 million. August 1, 2022 Update: Only Aearo Technologies (3Ms subsidiary) is protected by the automatic bankruptcy stay right now. But 3M is viewed as risky stock right now, which is not where it wants to be. The Motion asks Judge Graham to fully dismiss the Aearo bankruptcy proceeding based on the precedent recently established by the 3rd Circuit in the J&J talc bankruptcy case (In re LTL Management LLC). So they must be contending that they believe 3M will pay more through the bankruptcy process, but it is necessary because it is fairer. May 3, 2022: The 16th and last MDL trial will start Monday, May 9, 2022, for James Beals injury claim against 3M for its defective earplugs. Because if it loses and the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to take the case, 3M will have fired the last arrow in its quiver. His reasons for the denial were articulated by the Judge from the bench during the trial. The story of the trial is below (and more on Wayman and Sloan). The Order states that this was made necessary due to recent developments, which is a clear reference to bankruptcy recently filed by 3Ms subsidiary unit Aearo Technologies. 3Ms lawyers know it will not be granted. There is no question that the logistical challenges in the 3M earplug lawsuit also extend to settlement. Berger was directly involved in the original product design and testing of the Combat Arms earplugs. Summary judgment on this motion might render that appeal moot. Thousands of individual plaintiffs have filed claims against 3M in the defective earplugs lawsuits. May 4, 2022 Update: A new phase of the 3M earplug lawsuit is coming. There are two sides to this coin. It means 3Ms bankruptcy gambit failed as I predicted from the beginning. "mainEntity": [ On Tuesday in the Sloan/Wayman bellwether, the day included some fact witnesses and a nearly full day of testimony from Dr. Mark Packer, a critical expert witness for the plaintiffs. 3M previously agreed to pay $9.1 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly sold its earplugs to the Defense Logistics Agency without disclosing defects that decreased the hearing. Our lawyers looked at the applicable law and believed the plaintiffs would defeat this argument. But if there is a settlement, it will be tough to find a lawyer after a settlement is reached. The fear of this kind of damage averaging is larger claims will get settlement offers that undervalue their claims. May 17, 2022: Lets get you up to speed on what is happening in the Beal trial. If might want to bring a claim, hurry. This time, however, the summary judgment motion has a much better chance of being granted, and Judge Rodgers may be inclined toward it. The Beal trial will be conducted by Judge Robin Rosenberg. It might involve settlements for the lawsuit inventory of specific law firms, as opposed to a global settlement for all plaintiffs. After presenting short bits of video testimony from a handful of witnesses, 3M rested. Rodgers dismissed 3Ms claim that bogus plaintiffs are not being vetted, pointing out that 80,000 claimants have already been dismissed. With no upcoming trial dates, there is no great pressure on 3M and the company has shown an unwillingness to be serious about offering reasonable earplug settlement amounts to resolve this litigation. 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. Conversely, if this appeal fails as I strongly suspect that it will, 3Ms quiver is empty and settlements become that much harder. So hiring another lawyer is unlikely to speed up the path to a 3M earplug settlement. 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. The trial resulted in another defense verdict for 3M as the jury found that the plaintiff, Carlos Montero, failed to prove that his hearing loss was the result of defects in the 3M earplugs. The supplier warned the U.S. of the danger associated with the equipment that only the supplier knew of. 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 servicemembers and veterans are liars with worthless claims.. The trial value could be in this range or even higher (much higher for the first three victims, as it turns out). 3M Earplug Lawsuit How Much Money Will I Get? Rhodes then devoted the rest of his presentation to claiming that the settlement value of the earplug lawsuits should be $1 billion a paltry amount that would pay less than $5,000 to each plaintiff. Beals testimony was followed in the afternoon by the plaintiffs expert Dr. Christopher Spankovich, a clinical audiologist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. She also said she would allow an immediate appeal of her successor liability ruling, a strong signal she may rule for the plaintiffs. Both Fallon and Crawford also spent over 20 years in the Army. Incredibly, the $50 million was all compensatory damages (there are no punitive damages available under Indiana law). One small problemEleven out of 13 jury verdicts in favor of soldiers would fall into 3Ms not harmed category. This sounds like a bad thing, right? A consolidated trial involving 20 or 40 plaintiffs could last for months and would place 3M at a significant disadvantage, battling against that many soldiers and their families in a courtroom. 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 first defense witness was 3M scientist Dr. Eric Fallon, former chief Audiologist at Walter Reed Medical Center. This information is included in Aearo's estimation motion filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis. He testified for nearly 8 hours. August 23, 2022 Update: Judge Rodgerss stay on claims against 3M ends tomorrow. The earplug litigation is by far the largest mass tort in history. 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. "Litigation against 3M is still ongoing and a final amount has not been determined yet." What does this mean? October 4, 2022 Update: Judge Rodgers pushed back the David George trial set for October 24, 2022, to February 13, 2023, in an order signed yesterday. Kevin Rhodes, 3Ms Chief Legal Affairs Officer, gave a somewhat delusional presentation at the Conference last Wednesday on the status of the earplug lawsuits. So juries will not shoehorn 3M negligence and the victims hearing injury if the evidence does not support the claim. (Anthony Souffle, Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS). "@type": "Answer", Is The 3M Earplug Lawsuit Worth It? 3M believes that a large percentage of these plaintiffs do not have legitimate claims. 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. Rhodes claimed that the proposed bankruptcy trust fund of $1 billion is a fair valuation for all earplugs claims. "acceptedAnswer": { Personal injury lawyers handling serious personal injury truck and auto accident, medical malpractice and products liability cases throughout the United States. Can you see why 3M wanted to hide from juries in bankruptcy court? Sloan was then cross-examined by 3Ms lawyers for about 90 minutes. The mediators in bankruptcy court report that good faith negotiations are ongoing, and settlement negotiations will occur formally next month. Palanki was one of the bellwether cases selected by 3Ms defense team because they believed it presented favorable facts. March 28, 2022 Update: The action continues in the 3M litigation. The motion argues that the stay should not apply to these suits because they do not involve claims of direct liability against Aearo. Judge Rodgers granted a defense motion requiring plaintiffs who have not complied with court orders to produce basic information to show cause why their case should not be dismissed. 2885) forward for pretrial proceedings. A federal jury on Friday awarded a U.S. Army veteran $8.2 million after finding that combat earplugs sold by 3M Co caused him to suffer hearing loss and tinnitus, the biggest verdict yet against . It is hard to imagine a reasonable person claiming otherwise. 3M claims the earplugs were safe. 3M has consistently complained of difficulties in accessing so many claims. The size of the punitive damage award, in this case, exposes the potential vulnerability of 3M in these cases. November 1, 2022 Update: The judge in the 3M earplugs MDL is expected to rule very soon on the pivotal issue of whether 3M can be held solely and independently liable for the earplugs developed by its subsidiary Aero (which is filing bankruptcy). These opposing interpretations yield vastly different results. Day 6, Tuesday, January 18th, saw the expert testimony of Dr. Marc Bennett. (It might just be hedge funds accessing the risk and shorting 3M stock on the litigation risk. Specifically, the doctrine provides a guideline for when our servicemen and women may file a claim for personal injuries. With a slight pause as we switch to the Group D set of trials, we will see if 3M sees the wisdom in stopping the bleeding and offers soldiers reasonable settlement amounts. Palanki claimed that he suffered hearing damage while using 3Ms combat arms earplugs while on active duty with the Army at a base in Texas. There is some interesting perspective in the comments below from soldiers plaintiffs in the 3M earplug lawsuits. But that same law firm represents 3M an apparent conflict. 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. There are no guarantees of success. On Day 4 of the trial, the plaintiff James Beal took the stand in the morning. There is also reason to be pessimistic. Judge Rodgers explained that the presentation will help educate plaintiffs lawyers not on the leadership committees about the nature and scope of the claims. The battleground is the government contractor defense our earplug lawyers talked about from Day 1 of this litigation. This [Aearo] filing is yet another illustration of the bad faith exhibited by 3M, they said. 3M needs to wake up and offer reasonable settlement amounts to these soldiers. September 1, 2022: 3M noted its appeal of the bankruptcy ruling on Monday. If you have thoughts about the 3m earplug lawsuit, let us know in the comments below. I also understand that Miller & Zois works with multiple law firms on these claims and that I may be contacted by an affiliated law firm working with Miller & Zois on these lawsuits. 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. So they didnt buy Aearo planning to one day flip it into bankruptcy. That is $20 billion. 3M has been wearing rose-colored glasses from Day 1 of this litigation. The motion is an effort to block any remaining hope 3M may have of forcing the litigation into bankruptcy via its Aearo subsidiary. Vaughn was a case with a lot of weaknesses. I think this will happen, but this prediction would defy history. But if you do not like the settlement amount you are offered, you can opt-out of the settlement and take your case to a jury. If you have a potential 3M earplug lawsuit and have yet to contact a lawyer, you are making a mistake if you think you want to bring a claim. The remainder of the day was spent on 3Ms final expert witness, Dr. James Crawford. The fact that 3M is trying to involve the bankruptcy judge in the mediation suggests that they have no genuine interest in negotiating a settlement right now. Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets Why? Last week, however, a top JP Morgan cautioned that 3Ms litigation liabilities could exceed the $33 billion the investment bank says is already baked into the price of 3M stock. This is big news. May 20, 2022 Update: Good golly! July 28, 2022 Update: Does the Aearo bankruptcy mean 3M will get an automatic stay on continued litigation?
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